SGA depletes allocations, reworks budget

On March 9, SGA was forced to table three bills because it did not have any more funds for allocations. Following that meeting, SGA Treasurer Megan Moss and President Zach Mullins went to work to find more funds.

“We reorganized the budget and pulled from other resources we thought would work,” Moss said.

The money came from excess funds in the public relations, student services and campus issues committees.

A week after $1,276.39 was added from other sources, SGA found a formula error in the budget. The Excel sheets used to calculate the budget had hidden funds from SGA’s reports.

“It wasn’t until we were searching for more funds for bill allocations that we found it,” Moss said.

According to Mullins, the funds were always available, just not seen on the budget.

“(The formula has) been wrong for a while, but it was only wrong on the budget sheets…but not on the back end of the budget,” Mullins said.

The error lead to $5,000 being distributed among the Academic Travel Funds Committee, bill allocation and contingency funds.

“We set some aside for stuff over the summer,” Mullins said. “Most of it went to bill allocations and (the Academic Travel Funds Committee).”

SGA originally had $12,000 to allocate this academic year, with the budget tweaks more funding was available than allocated.

In Fall semester, 12 bills were passed that allocated $5,219.94. Moss said that the leftover funds from Fall were saved and put towards Spring allocations.

As of April 14, SGA has $1,755.07 left in its Spring Bill Allocation funds. So far this semester, SGA has passed 13 allocation bills for a total of $7,973.61. The average amount spent for each bill is $613.

According to Moss, the number of bills passed this semester is about the same as in past years.

“I would say that the number of bills hasn’t increased, the amount for each bill has gotten bigger,” Moss said. “I think (senators) want to give as much as they can to as many groups as they can.”

To ensure that funds are not hidden in the future, SGA has double-checked all formulas on the budget sheet. While there was a budget error in the Excel formula, the RSOs and SGA’s funding level benefited.

“We’re happy to have more money to help with bill allocations,” Mullins said.

“To help the students,” Moss added.

Posted by Matt Chambers on Apr 14 2011. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.