SGA approves new budget, supreme court appointments

Members of the Student Government Association approved the organization's 2012-2013 budget, appointed two new Supreme Court members and the Freshman Council Director at their meeting on Tuesday.

The new budget was approved by an almost unanimous vote, with only the Vice President and Internal Affairs Chair Kolby Flowers opposing. With the new budget, organizational expenses have been reduced to $45,350 (63%) by cutting executive student assistant wages and the Internal Affairs budget, while leaving officer wages where they are. However, student-oriented spending decreased a percentage point, while senate discretionary spending jumped from $8,100 (11%) to $12,900 (18%).

“Officer wages since I’ve been here have never changed. What has changed is that we are now $10,000 bigger in our budget,” Treasurer Jimmy Williams said.

Williams also said that student government associations at other colleges and small businesses have about the same margin and that the discretionary budget would go mostly towards new programs, supplementing the existing programs, and funding the PR for these programs. Any use of discretionary funds has to be approved by the Senate.

The budget comes after the release of Flowers’ internal budget review, which outlined last year’s budget and his solution to focus more funds on serving the student body, such as cutting officer wages or paid positions. According to his review, almost 70% of SGA’s revenue went towards the organization itself, while only 20% was applied to student-oriented expenditures. Flowers filed a motion to postpone the budget approval until next week for further discussion, which was voted down.

After the budget approval, the Senate approved two new appointees to the Supreme Court. The new justices are doctoral student Molly Smith and junior Ozoemena “Tracy” Nnamadim. Both said they would love to be more involved with SGA, but time constraints and prior commitments don’t allow them.

Victoria Towery, the current Chief of Staff, was appointed as the Freshman Council Director and it was approved by the Senate. Towery had been appointed by President Shane Rankin last week, but it was not approved by the Senate.

SGA meets every Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. in LSC 326, with the exception of next week, when they’ll be meeting at University Park.