Tuesday night’s Senate meeting was all about the money.
Senators voted to pass two bills with proposed budgets for second readings. The first bill allocated money for the Student Government-funded organizational budget, and the second allocated money for the SG-funded academic budget.
Sen. Davis Bean, chairman of the budget and appropriations committee, said a new element of the organizational budget could award additional funding to organizations that spent 90 percent of their previous budgets. Senators will push the measure to a vote next meeting.
Bean said 13 organizations will receive an additional $500 while two others will receive $250.
“With the money that was left over … we took that money and decided to allocate it equally to these organizations that were fiscally responsible,” Bean said.
Certain aspects of the budget sparked controversy.
In pro-con debate, Sen. Michael Christ said he disagreed with both of the budget bills.
Christ said his main issues with the organizational budget bill were increased funding allocated for food and the monetary rewards for fiscally responsible groups.
“I don’t think having a really good expenditure rate … justifies giving more money,” Christ said.
As for food, Christ said he doesn’t want SG to “turn into a food-subsidization group.”
Five senators spoke during the pro portion of the debate, and each put their support behind the budget as proposed.
Sen. Susan Webster said the responsible organizations deserve extra money.
“By giving these organizations who have great expenditure rates extra money, we are able to help those organizations put on more and better events,” she said.
Sen. Austin Sherman said he supported the line items providing organizations with money for food.
“I think food is vital to student orgs ... to outreach,” Sherman said.
[A version of this story ran on page 5 on 4/9/2014 under the headline "Two budget-related bills progress with first readings in Senate"]
Sen. Davis Bean, chairman of the budget and appropriations committee, discusses the 2014-2015 Student Government-funded organizational budget during Tuesday’s Student Senate meeting.
