Blood in the Boardroom: Budget Battles Divide Senate
It was a long, bitter meeting for ASUO Senators last night, as battle lines were drawn in the fight for fiscal responsibility. The Program Finance Committee, which funds student groups, and the EMU Board both had hearings before the Senate on their budget benchmarks, which are their spending goals for the next school year. Take away all the bickering, whining, weeping and petty retaliation, and you’re left with a few important numbers:
ADFC benchmark: 7%
PFC benchmark: 2.5%
EMU benchmark: 5.5%
The Good Stuff (TM) is after the jump…
The Responsibility Revolution
After early presentations (more on that later) the Senate dove right into the tough stuff, beginning with the PFC benchmark. As per policy, both the PFC and the Executive made recommendations for the benchmark, at 5.75% increase and 5% increase respectively (keeping in mind that a 7% increase is the maximum allowed benchmark.) Almost immediately, certain Senators began to make clear that 5% growth in program funding was simply not going to fly, given the huge budget surplus and cash funds that currently exist. This turned into complaints about the PFC process in general, the lack of concern for steady incidental fee increase, and the fact that nearly all of last years budget increases came back in rolled over surplus. That’s right folks, the Senate atually tried to take a stand against the business-as-usual of steady budget increases, by sending the PFC a mandate to cut the fat, and a vote was taken on a 0% benchmark for the PFC. Senators Kinsey, McKenzie, Pinson, Daniels, Papailiou and Justice all stuck their necks out to vote aye on the 0% proposal, giving voice to the growing movement towards real reform of the ASUO. Sadly, this noble gesture failed, giving way to further rounds of argument and negotiation.
The Empire Strikes Back
The big-spending majority of the Senate, including nearly every member of the Axelrod slate were not going to take an attack on the PFC sitting down. In defense of the 5% benchmark, Senators and PFC members spoke of the huge increases in Current Service Level (CSL) costs, which accounts for budget increases needed to simply maintain current services. Another favorite defence was that programs would not be able to grow if the benchmark were set below 5%, an argument which ignored the calls for programs to be funded based on objective analysis of a programs contributions, not simply how much they spent last year. This would allow groups who truly deserve budget growth to get it, while trimming the abundant fat to keep the budget under-benchmark, facts lost on the five-percenters who spoke of across-the-board cuts, students being payed less than minimum wage (huh?), and the fact that reduction in the PFC benchmark did not guarantee a reduction in the incidental fee. Senators even went as far as to claim that other Senators “are not involved in groups, and should not rush to cut them, or think of them as expendable,” without stopping to think that perhaps their own involvement with groups made them perhaps a little too eager to keep the benchmark high, and their affiliated groups budget increases on track.
Drama!
A proposal for a 1% PFC benchmark was quickly rejected, as was a 2% increase. Just when it seemed that the five-percenters were going to hold out untill the reformers compromised their way to the desired number, a few fence-sitters jumped when Senator McKenzie proposed a 2.5% increase. In addition to Kinsey, Mckenzie, Pinson, Daniels, Papailiou and Justice, Rosenberg, Sherrick, and the new Senators Ebner and Tripp jumped on the middle compromise, passing the bill setting the PFC’s benchmark at it’s lowest rate in years. Senators Sherrick and Rosenberg demonstrated their moderate credentials by tipping the balance against the big-spending block, and Senators Ebner and Tripp have clearly started their Senate careers on the right foot, bringing sanity and common ground to a Senate badly in need of both. Not everyone was happy about the decision however, as at least one Senator was observed openly weeping at the result during the brief recess after the vote, bringing new meaning to the saying “a good compromise leaves everyone unhappy.”
The Retaliatory Strike
This displeasure was clearly shared by other five-percenters, as after a relatively calm vote on the EMU benchmark, Senator Guerra made a motion to rescind the ADFC benchmark which was set at the 7% maximum at last weeks meeting. Throughout the PFC discussion, Senators had whined that it “wasn’t fair” that the ADFC was getting a 7% increase, while PFC was getting slashed. Of course this ignores the fact that the ADFC has to finance tickets for an extra home game next year, completely throwing their budget off, which is why the Senate approved the abnormally high increase the week before. But if the PFC patrons were getting their funds cut, everyone was going to suffer… or so they thought. Because of Senate rules, only Senators who voted against, or abstained from the 7% benchmark, leaving Senator Guerra in the akward position of asking ADFC members who had abstained from the vote to second his motion to rescind. Although Senator Hamilton grudgingly seconded the motion, it was seen as the petty partisan move that it was, and it promptly failed.
The Opportunity Cost
Debate is a great thing. The stand taken against runaway program spending, and the resulting legislative knife fight was very necessary for the Senate, but everything has opportunity costs, and in this case the costs were high. Because so much time was spent on benchmarks, the Senate was rushed into passing Senate Bill 19 and Senate Bill 23, basically abandoning much-needed oversight on the mechanisms and goals for overrealized fund spending. While these bills are decent, they certainly could be better, and it is a shame that there was not even real questioning of key provisions such as the lumping of all proposals into one of two “appropriations packages,” and the lack of students on the Ad Hoc Committee.
Other Business
Before the whole benchmark party kicked off, the Senate preliminarily approved an initiative to make the Universities dining services serve only certified cage-free eggs. The bill will be sent to the rules committee, and further discussed before final approval at a later meeting. Unfortunately, no-one actually knew how much this change would actually cost, making any analysis of it premature at this point. Also, the Senate was treated to a 20 minute video on suicide awareness to start the evening, in what was probably a smart move… if anyone is at risk of suicide, it would be the poor souls who are forced to spend their Wednesday evenings in the Boardroom. On the other hand, maybe increasing Senate meetings by 20 minutes would be enough to push a few over the edge. By the time I dragged my sorry carcass out of the EMU after midnight, I certainly felt like staring into the abyss… luckily a fast, effective cure is available, and it’s called “Jubelale,” just ask your doctor.
