The A.S. Council is entering the final week of the quarter without an internal budget, due to a debate over whether to supplement the proposed budget with money from its mandated reserves.

Mandated reserves are funds created by student fees that are saved each year for the A.S. Council for emergency situations.

“”Mandated reserves is for A.S. to have money set aside for a variety of reasons – it could be used in the case of an emergency,”” said A.S. advisor Paul Dewine. “”It could be for programs that weren’t successful and need to be supplemented. It is also money on reserve so that new programs can be initiated — it’s essentially to help support the A.S. in everything that it does.””

He added that it is also “”a responsible thing for them to do: have money in reserves in case something unforeseen happens.””

The current budget proposal uses mandated reserve money to fund A.S.Council travel expenses and administrative supplies and expenses, totaling $53,550 out of an account of $800,000.

A.S. President Jenn Brown explained her decision to supplement these programs by comparing the situation to last year’s budget.

“”I decided to spend money from our mandate reserves for a couple of our programs because the A.S. last year spent a lot of money from our enterprise reserves — about the same as this year: $50,000,”” Brown said. “”I am doing the exact same thing that Jeff Dodge did last year. He just didn’t tell anyone that he was doing it and I am.””

Maintaining the funding of past programs versus maintaining the $800,000 emergency reserve pot has become a contentious issue.

Some A.S. Council members believe that an untouched pot of reserve money is more valuable than program funding.

“”I personally feel very uncomfortable with it,”” said Wendy Ho, Eleanor Roosevelt College’s senior senator. “”The mandated reserves are there for dire circumstances. I think that should be an untouched pot. I’d rather see programs being cut than money being taken out. They are our safety net, and I do not think they should be touched.””

Although this is the second-consecutive year that A.S. has considered spending reserve money, Brown said it will not become a common occurrence for future councils.

“”The spending out of reserves is not to set a precedent that we should be spending out of reserves. It’s solely to fund at the basic level the things that the A.S. needs to be funding,”” Brown said. “”I am not a big proponent of taking money out of mandated reserves to supplement the budget.””

Opposed to cutting funding when possible, other A.S. members believe that maintaining funding is necessary.

“”We can’t just start slashing programs,”” said John Muir Colleg Senior Senator Corinne Hart. “”The student body will be angry if we just start slashing things. Responsibly dipping into the reserves is a necessary evil.””

The lack of clarity as to when reserve money can and cannot be used has also been an issue with some A.S. Council members.

“”I don’t particularly know how it works, but what I have seen is that we are dipping into it because we don’t have enough money, because as A.S. is growing there are things we need to fund, and they are crucial things,”” said Eleanor Roosevelt College Sophomore Senator Desiree Jabson.

Another reason for dipping into mandate reserves: newly created major funding programs.

Triton Tide, a school spirit program, became part of A.S. Council’s internal budget for the first time this year, receiving $20,000.

The newly passed athletic fee referendum aimed to improve the athletics program, but the fee will not completely fund programs like Triton Tide, which promotes athletics.

“”I think that there is a general feel on this campus that we want to have more school spirit and that everybody is willing to pay the price for more school spirit,”” said Muir College Sophomore Senator Jeremy Cogan. “”I think that Triton Tide can make that possible. The athletic referendum was a great accomplishment in ensuring that our athletics remained here, but we still need funding for groups that will promote the athletics.””

Another major addition to the A.S. Council budget has been money for diversity affairs, totaling $37,500, including student outreach programs.

“”The reason for doing that [funding student outreach programs] was that this year the state gave a lot of money to all the UC campuses for student-initiated outreach, and they cut all student-initiated outreach in the budget [for this year], and as an A.S. we wanted to show to the state that student-initiated outreach is a priority to students,”” Brown said.

Members of council worked on the budget Sunday night and will debate it further at Wednesday’s weekly meeting.