$2.1 million budget leaves SA in red

After nearly 12 hours of deliberation, the Student Association closed the debates on its internal and external budget, with the total budget totalling more than $2.1 million.

Some groups received increases of thousands of dollars from what had been proposed, and some things, such as intramural sports, were cut out of next year’s budget.

Over 25 student groups objected to the budget that was proposed to them by SA President Joshua Sussman and the Board of Finance. The group that caused the biggest stir was the New York Public Interest Research Group.

According to their Web site, NYPIRG is “New York State’s largest student-directed advocacy organization. Students work with a staff of professionals to fight for lower tuition, a cleaner environment, social justice, consumer protection, student rights and more.”
For the 2009-10 academic year, NYPIRG had a budget of $40,073.23. In the proposed budget, they would be reduced to a budget of one dollar.

“Fiscally, it’s a joke,” said Sussman about NYPIRG. “This organization does not even deserve the dollar.”

Brenden Colling, the campus supervisor for NYPIRG, claimed that the vouchers that NYPIRG submitted to SA were valid, however, there were cases where SA “chose not to acknowledge that we submitted vouchers.”

“The president should be able to specify the criteria that is being used [to make the budget]. That didn’t happen,” Colling said.

Tremayne Price, the president’s chief of staff and a member of the Board of Finance, supported the one-dollar budget for NYPIRG. He said that the budget could only be based on what the group does year to year, and “based on those facts, NYPIRG doesn’t have the numbers.”

“This is the most asinine shit!” said Price about NYPIRG receiving $20,500 to pay their project coordinator, a non-student employee who works off campus.

“In order to have a real power to influence policy in New York, a professional staff is necessary,” explained Colling.

NYPIRG was ultimately returned to their initial budget with one condition. The condition was that they must prove, and prove validly through SA’s voucher process, that they spent at least 90 percent of the allotted budget. If this condition is not met, NYPIRG’s budget would be reduced to one dollar the following year.

“I simply cannot believe that any of the senators which defended NYPIRG so vehemently would have stood up for any other major group on campus which dropped its spending to zero dollars. If any other group on campus dropped to $0, their budget would be reduced by a significant percentage, and possibly all the way to $1. To not reduce an unspent budget is fiscally irresponsible,” said Board of Finance member Dan Hurley.

Albany’s student radio station, WCDB requested stipends for their top employees, claiming that they had full-time jobs that required compensation.

Chief Engineer and SA senator Ryan Farrell challenged his colleagues to “reinstate our stipends, or vote to get rid of your own.”

“The employees of SA are necessary,” said senate vice-chair Andrew Ziegelstein.
“Student groups need us to exist,” continued Sussman.

The SA did not approve of the stipends, claiming that they did not want to set a precedent for student groups receiving stipends in the future. Farrell voted in favor of his own stipends, and his fellow senators attempted to expel him from office. The motion was not carried through as the student group spectators began to get restless from the SA squabbling.

The SA also recently raised the stipends for several of their members.

Once all of the groups had been heard, SA found themselves around $228,000 in debt. Several cuts were made to the proposed budget for 2010-11.

“This money isn’t real,” said Stephen Guarneri, Jr., a member of the Board of Finance. He was appalled at the money that the SA senate was handing out. “This process needs to change,” he said.

Intramural sports were cut out of next years budget to help get SA $26,000 closer to the black. They will be funded through a new division of student success that will levy an additional $35 fee to each student, said SA Senator Matthew Wimpelberg in a text message.

Other cuts included, but were not limited to: a $4,000 cut to Fountain Day, a $10,000 cut to the spring concert, and $10,000 cut from the supplemental allocations bringing it down to $50,000 from $60,000.

At around 7 a.m. the budget was closed at $2,102,536.42.

At the time this article was written, the budget was closed but not yet signed by Sussman. He is expected to sign the budget before the semester’s end.