Similar situation happened to us in Liverpool, UK.
Our KH had a lot of old biddies that donated like £50 a month for years. Our KH was a shack. We had the funds to build a KH 2 times over but just couldn't find the land to build it on. We were one of the KH's that didn't have a loan with Bethel.
Then came the announcement that they're going to merge our KH with TWO others. So no need for a new KH. Bethel had asked for the money in our account and so a vote went out asking if we all agree to send Bethel £38,931 in 2013 and £41,132 in 2014. (£80,063 in total). Of course we all "agreed" but many wernt happy. Particularly the older ones.
One day they handed out little forms to each of us during the meeting wanting us to write how much we could donate on a monthly basis.
Turns out, Bethel had "lovingly" cancelled all loan agreements with the KHs. How nice of them right? Not so. It turns out that despite the loan being cancelled they still wanted the congregations to send the same amount of money each month as a donation.... forever.
Bethel had already pulled off one cash and grab scam. Now it was time for another one. Because we didn't have a loan in place with them they expected us to come up with a number in which to make regular donations to them forever. I think the standard amount people were writing down was £20. (£20 x 70 members = £1,400 per month TAX FREE). I gotta hand it to the Bethel accounts dept. That's a pretty good scam "loving arrangement" you thought up there.
Imagine the shame you'd feel if you put £0.00 because you're poor (like i was at the time). I was already spending £80 a month just commuting to the meetings. So i never contributed. This was the first time i remember the org blatantly asking for money. Something i smugly used to tell people that they never do.