2005 A.S. budget is fiscally irresponsible

Editor:

I am writing today with grave concerns regarding the proposed A.S. Executive Budget that appeared in the A.S. Council’s May 19 agenda proposed by A.S. President Jenn Pae. I will outline two of my concerns. The policy of this budget seems to be “spend now, hopefully (if we have the money) pay later.” The A.S. Council budget is not a credit card.

After speaking to Pae, I am very concerned that the proposed budget has large flaws that are extremely fiscally irresponsible.

The A.S. Council must maintain its fiscal accountability as many events and organizations use our budget to plan their activities. In addition, as Senate Chair and Co-op Oversight Chair Kate Pillon can verify, Associated Students is the fiscal agent for all the co-ops on campus. We cannot realize that halfway through the year we are in debt, and take money from events and groups that were expecting it.

The budget does not account for Enterprise Office revenue or monies for stipends to run the A.S. Services. In general, Associated Students spends nearly $50,000 to run the A.S. Services. These include such services as the Academic Success Program, Volunteer Connections, KSDT, Student Run Television and more. By not accounting for the Enterprise revenue or the monies to run the A.S. Services, Pae is taking a huge risk that the Enterprise revenue will be enough to pay for the services. This risk is fiscally irresponsible and blatantly wrong.

My other major concern is Pae’s plan to pay A.S.P. $11,000 in winter and $7,000 in spring to operate their service instead of accounting for their total budget now. Although this plan sounds good right now (and frees up money for other things), I question where President Pae plans on the $18,000 coming from. The budget states that it will be from “General Unallocated,” but I question how that money will be there, being that her current budget only has $6,000 in the General Unallocated pot.

I feel that this plan maintains no fiscal responsibility. First, the point of the Executive Budget is to account for all known income and expenditures, which this clearly does not. Second, by stating in the budget that “Distribution for winter ($11,000) and spring ($7,000) will be from General Unallocated upon budget request,” she makes the claim that this budget somehow authorizes the expenditure, but does not account for the actual expense: Item 17 totals $24,000 rather than the total-year cost of $42,000.

I suggest that Pae follow the lead of the past A.S. presidents and take an educated estimate (albeit, a conservative estimate) to include in the budget. Then, the A.S. Services stipends can be allocated appropriately. Also, Pae needs to include all known income and expenses (such as A.S.P.) in the budget. It is an outlandish notion that we will just “pay for it later” when we know of the expense now.

Finally, I want to convey my dismay that Pae seemingly did not even seriously consider my concerns. Although she campaigned to “open the budget process to all students,” I felt like my opinion was not validated.

— Jeremy Paul Gallagher

2003-04 A.S. President