The Student Services Finance Committee denied Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanx de Aztlán’s budget request and amended their policies for wage and other violations on Thursday.

In a 0-13-1 vote, SSFC rejected the $20,000 alteration to MEChA’s budget that would have been used for furniture. Committee members worried about the precedent they would set if they accepted the budget alteration.

Vice Chair Tessa Reilly voiced her hesitation about accepting MEChA’s altered budget.

“We looked into their budget and they had $3,000 set aside for furniture already and that hadn’t been touched at all yet, so that just makes me raise an eyebrow,” Reilly said. “What type of precedent does this set and does this give other groups the time to request something last minute before the end of the year happens.”

Rep. Anika Chatterjee echoed some of Reilly’s concerns. Chatterjee said while the re-allocation of funds could help MEChA, the possible precedent that accepting the alteration set outweighed the benefits.

SSFC approves Badger Catholic budget return, debates MEChA budget alterations

SSFC also made amendments to their Wage Policy Violation and All Other Violations legislations. SSFC members decided to cut out the second meeting in their Wage Policy Violation because of the redundancy and flexibility it gave employees.

“To me it looks like we are giving them too many chances,” Chatterjee said. “I know that we had made the decision to do that because we thought it was too much of a jump to go from that to freezing their funds, but to me that … having to meet with the chair and vice chair again seems a little bit redundant to me.”

SSFC eventually passed the amendment, which also included striking the accountability sheet, to the Wage Policy Violation in a 12-0-1 vote.