The process of crafting an incidental fee budget is an important task the ASUO undertakes. And with the usual 7 percent growth cap being reinterpreted for this year, the process will be challenging.
Previously, each budget committee was only allowed to grow its individual budget at a maximum of 7 percent. Now the 7 percent cap will apply to the incidental fee budget as a whole, meaning that one committee’s budget could potentially exceed a 7 percent growth if another committee offset it in their budget.
“This is going to be a very interesting budget process with the new cap,” Athletics and Contracts Finance Committee Chair Sen. Ben Bowman said.@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Ben+Bowman@@
The ACFC will vote on their benchmark recommendation tomorrow night. Bowman said that most of the contracts have asked for more than a 7 percent increase.
ASUO President Ben Eckstein said he hoped to change the agreement with the athletic department this year.
“I would say that the athletic department has been taking too much of our money for too long,” Eckstein said.
The budget benchmark also looks uncertain for the Department Finance Committee — even with a benchmark memo and an Executive recommendation submitted. The DFC has requested a 7.25 percent growth rate from the Senate, while the Executive has recommended zero percent growth.@@Leave as zero?@@
The difference comes primarily from a plan by University administration to contribute its own $100,000 to Campus Recycling, leaving the same amount of student funds free for the DFC to spend elsewhere. The Executive’s recommendation incorporates that buy-down, while the DFC’s memo to the Senate does not.
Eckstein said that this difference was not accidental but was meant to present both possibilities to Senate.
“We were in full communication throughout the benchmark process,” Eckstein said.
Sen. Lamar Wise,@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Lamar+Wise@@ chair of the DFC, agreed and said, “Myself and the DFC decided to take the worst case scenario: that they didn’t get bought down.”
The Programs Finance Committee has also submitted its benchmark memo, asking for 6.5 percent. Their memo notes that the proposal does not factor in changes to program leader stipends that the Senate approved last week.
The Executive recommended an 11 percent increase for PFC. Eckstein said that most of this difference came from the stipend model changes, which the Executive recommendation incorporated.
However, he added that “programs are important. They have been neglected for too long.”
The benchmark process began earlier in the year when the finance committees received rough estimates from the organizations they fund as to their budgets for next year. Combining these together, each committee submits what is called a benchmark memo, which is essentially a statement of how they expect their budget to look. The Executive also submits a recommendation for each committee’s budget as well. The Senate uses these figures when setting each committee’s benchmark, a sort of guideline for each committee when they conduct budget hearings in winter term.
The DFC and PFC will have their benchmarks set by the Senate at tomorrow’s meeting. The EMU Board and the ACFC will have their benchmark hearings next week and are expected to submit their benchmark memos later this week. The Executive will submit its recommendations shortly thereafter.