The ASUO’s leaders now believe they’ve found the money to solve the problems surrounding the student government’s contract with Lane Transit District, leaving the ASUO’s budget for next year subject to one more round of votes before it can be finalized.
The funds would allow the ASUO to continue providing students with free rides on LTD buses next year. The capacity of the student government’s budget is still about $30,000 short of the amount LTD’s directors are prepared to accept for the coming year, members of the ASUO Senate said.
The plan to find that cash originates from negotiations with LTD by ASUO
President Emma Kallaway, ASUO Sens. Alex McCafferty and Hailey Sheldon, and Dean of Students Paul Shang.
ASUO Sen. Demic Tipitino said it would use, in part, money from an account containing funds the ASUO obtained through a tax credit program in the 2008–09 school year. The rest would come out of the ASUO Senate’s surplus fund, which the student government uses to help student groups pay for events and activities.
Allocating money from either account requires a vote from the Senate and is then subject to a veto from the ASUO president.
Most of the money raised from the tax credit was spent in 2008–09 to pay for the part of the late-night bus route that serves campus and is funded entirely through the ASUO; the tax credit had generated more than $100,000 at that time.
The remaining money was kept in an ASUO account set aside for funding sustainable initiatives, but the exact amount that remains is unclear. At least $10,000 must be in the account at all times to fund applications for future tax credits, but Senate President Nick Gower said that although he didn’t know exactly how much money remains in the account, it’s not enough to fund the $30,000 the ASUO would need.
Any additional money would come from the Senate’s surplus account, whose current balance is more than $118,000. The account’s funds may only be spent during the year the Senate decides to allocate them, according to ASUO rules. However, any funds in the account that aren’t spent by the end of the year remain in the account for the following year.
In the past, that has allowed the Senate to earmark funds from the surplus account to carry over for services in the coming year. For instance, in spring of 2009, the Senate earmarked more than $20,000 to keep the Knight Library open around the clock in the 2009-10 school year.
Whatever the balance in the two accounts, allocating them will still require a Senate vote in the spring. It is unclear how that vote will turn out because some influential senators said Sunday they had not been aware of plans to use the Senate’s funds to pay for the LTD contract.
Sen. Sandy Weintraub, one of the Senate’s longest-serving and most influential members, was one of the senators who said he hadn’t heard of the plan, but he also said he would support the new proposal.
“Last year, we earmarked about $30,000” for the late-night library “because it was an essential service,” he said. “In order to sustain something like the (late-night bus service), which is also an essential service, I think it’s definitely appropriate.”
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