As our exalted leaders in student government begin their annual season of budget decisions, there is already evidence that a more conservative SSFC doesn’t mean student organizations will submit conservative budget requests. Case in point: the Legal Information Center.

The LIC is a group of law student volunteers and paid staff who answer legal questions from callers from across the community. Their budget request this year is almost twice the size of their request just two years ago, which is cause for concern. Their budget shows that even non-partisan student services are unwilling to do more with less, at least not voluntarily.

We don’t expect the LIC staff to work pro bono, but their salary increase from an already generous $10.25 an hour to an alarming $12 simply isn’t warranted. LIC representatives argue that law students typically make much more than that figure in other positions, but that is no reason to take students to the cleaners.

The huge salaries coincide with a request to double the hours of the office manager. Undoubtedly, the office manager is a nice person and a riot at parties, but in an era of tuition hikes and budget crunches, it is time to cut the fat.

The most disturbing problem with the LIC’s budget request is that, by their own admission, half the callers they serve are not UW students, yet they pay no user fee and essentially free-ride on student tuition dollars. This problem is not unique to the LIC, but on a percentage basis, few organizations support more free-riders from the community than they do. This funding model, where students foot the entire bill for services used by the general community, is not acceptable for any student organization, no matter how well intentioned.

We are encouraged that this year’s SSFC is taking a hard look at the problem of skyrocketing segregated fees, and we hope that they continue the crusade by controlling the escalating salaries of the LIC and fund them proportionately to the percentage of services actually delivered to students who are paying the bills. Cut their budget in half, and let them charge non-students to make up the difference.