In the final budget decisions of the semester, Student Services Finance Committee increased the Associated Students of Madison budget by $100,000 and cut funds for Student Judiciary, but left its own proposed budget for the 2002-03 school year alone Wednesday.
SSFC also voted to increase its own unallocated fund budget for the 2002-03 school year.
The Student Judiciary, a legislative branch of ASM, requested $52,597 for the school year, which was a $7,003 decrease from the current budget.
Student Judiciary Vice Chair Adam Goldstein included a letter with the budget proposal, explaining that one of the reasons for the decreased amount was that “one of the major goals in crafting this budget was to trim much of the ‘fat’ from the budget.”
SSFC eventually decided to allocate $48,785 to the Student Judiciary, leaving the amount of the chair and vice chair’s stipends the same as this year.
SSFC also voted to decrease the current stipends for the Student Election Committee chair and vice chair from $3,700 to $3,600, and $2,700 to $2,100, respectively. Associate justices were allocated half the stipend they currently receive, making it a total of $3,000.
SSFC member Scott Spector explained why the committee decreased current stipends.
“I think this budget is a good budget that allows the Student Judiciary to continue running,” he said. “But I think that it should be clear that as a committee, we are not happy with the lack of speed they have shown in making their decisions. We cut the stipend request to show our frustration with this slowness.”
SSFC also cut the budget for ASM, granting $694,500, which was $9,500 less than requested, but still a $100,000 increase over the current budget.
Over half of the budget cut was in the area of diversity programming, which received $10,000 this fiscal year. ASM requested this amount be increased to $15,000, but SSFC voted not to do so.
SSFC member Carl Camacho was pleased with the budget decision.
“I believe students are getting a bargain for a responsible, productive, diligent student government for $694,500,” Camacho said.
SSFC also put a seal of approval on its own budget decision, sticking almost exactly with its proposed budget: $49,155. While SSFC received $6,350 for the 2001-02 budget, many committee members said they needed to add a staff financial specialist — at a cost of $26,885 — to handle the increasing amounts of paperwork.
SSFC member Matt Modell said he is opposed to adding a new staff position.
“We’ve already raised segregated fees this year,” he said. “We’ve done our damage; we’ve made our point.”
SSFC Vice Chair Roman Patzner disagreed.
“We need a permanent staff position to provide the continuity of filling out paperwork, because that’s a tremendous responsibility,” Patzner said.
SSFC ultimately voted to approve nearly the entire budget, with the exception of program supplies, which they eliminated.
The committee then reached a decision on unallocated funds, raising the amount from $9,061 to $15,000.
A new addition to the SSFC, Andrew Bryan, who represents University Health Services, said he enjoyed the meeting. Though he has not yet been sworn into office yet, he attended Wednesday’s meeting.
“It was involved,” Bryan said. “There was more bickering over small matters than I thought there would be. However, good issues were brought up and discussed appropriately.”
SSFC Chair Lamont Smith was similarly pleased with the outcome of the meeting.
“By and large, I think the budget decisions were good,” Smith said. “I would have liked to see program supplies approved, but that’s a matter of opinion.”