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SSFC passes ASM budget for new year
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After much debate, the Student Services Finance Committee passed the Associated Students of Madison’s 2005-06 budget in a meeting Monday night at the Memorial Union.
The ASM budget was set at $680,900, a two percent increase from the 2004-05 budget.
Included in the proposed budget increase was funding for an added financial specialist and increased pay for ASM’s chair and vice chair. Members also said some numbers needed to be “rounded up.”
During open forum, ASM Finance Committee Chair Barbara Kiernoziak said the current financial specialist position at ASM is overstressed and has a high turnover rate due to lack of assistance.
“Basically the concerns that came up tonight were the same throughout this entire process,” Kiernoziak said in a phone interview following the meeting.
“Just because the SSFC is grossly underpaid does not mean we shouldn’t internally try to fix ourselves and somehow normalize wages for our top leadership positions. [ASM] is proportionally … underpaid compared to other campus organizations — we just want to make sure we can stay competitive.”
The forum was prolonged after some members of SSFC motioned for cuts to be made in various sectors of the proposed ASM budget.
“With a budget [of] over half a million dollars, three percent is a significant increase,” SSFC member Brad Vogel said. “Even by taking small symbolic steps to cut out big budgets like this we can really make progress.”
After describing them as “dead limbs on an oak tree,” Vogel proposed cuts to both ASM’s diversity liaisons and travel funds, neither of which passed.
However, cuts were made during deliberation to proposed pay increases for ASM chair and vice chair.
Despite obstacles during deliberation, the meeting granted ASM nearly $300 more than originally proposed.
“I think we had sufficient debate, and every person who needed to make a point was able to say it — that’s the most important job we have,” SSFC member Selam Zewdie said after the meeting. “I think it went very well.”
SSFC member Kevin Otten, who was filling in as chair for the evening, said the gathering was one of the better meetings he had attended.
“I’m very proud over how respectful everyone was in debate despite such strong opinions — it was very civil,” Otten said.
Although ASM’s new budget proposal passed, not everyone was content with the results of the forum. Vogel expressed concern that less money could have been cut from the proposal to limit increases to student tuition.
Vogel showed disagreement with the committee, stating that while many SSFC members alluded to a two percent increase as a good thing, they are still allocating funds to positions that are duplicates of other student groups they fund.
“I think it’s too bad we can’t cut more from the council budget — we should be looking out for tuition costs at this point,” Vogel said.
Despite disagreements within SSFC, many considered the meeting a success for ASM.
“I think the meeting went well. I was really happy with how much [SSFC] cared about the budget, which was the biggest they’ve seen so far. I’m happy with the decisions they made,” Kiernoziak said.
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