In the aftermath of this year's Annual Meeting and the recent tremors of cash shortfalls within the organization, I began thinking "what could they do next to bring in more $$$."
Many here have speculated that we're seeing incremental moves toward "tithing" (of course they would never call it that). A recent thread (can't find it right now) highlighted that they recently raised the "suggested per publisher donation" at the Circuit Assembly significantly (tripled it?).
I can imagine them deciding that the same "per publisher 'suggested' donation" be applied at the congregation level in the future. The branch would determine what the figure is, write a letter to all congregations and direct the local elders to re-visit their current monthly commitment in light of this new per publisher donation and recommend a new monthly commitment for the congregation (only to those low-contributing congs, of course!).
Then, the local elders could make those dire sounding "deficit" announcements at the local level that we're all so used to hearing at the Circuit Assembly!
Not true "tithing" but still where HQ is dictating specifically how much each congregation needs to pay up.