Dear Editor,

The USG Senate largely used this meeting to continue its debate on the 2007-08 Budget, which has been riddled with confusion, objections, modifications, and general discord. The reader may recall that during the Senate’s last meeting the legislative body was close to passing the budget, but the debate surrounding it intensified after it was discovered that there were several technical errors, which when corrected caused the expenditures to exceed income, forcing the Senate to make some tough choices on how to deal with the shortfall. After intense debate, leave was granted from Dr. Baigent (who was called at his home at around 9:30 PM) to postpone a final decision on the budget for an additional week, to allow the Budget Committee to return with a complete and balanced proposal.

That was not the case! The debate was opened by Senators Maiorella and Shapiro, who had spent an incredible amount of time last week reviewing every club’s budget proposal, adjusting their final numbers and then providing justifications for such changes so that clubs (and Senators) would understand the reasoning behind their decisions. Unfortunately for the duo, the majority of the Senate, while largely commending them on their tireless efforts, took exception with some of the increases and decreases the two Senators recommended, and jumped on the chance to postpone the budget for an additional week, after Dr. Baigent (this time through e-mail) granted them yet another week for final vetting and approval.

The issue, dear reader, is quite complex. On the one hand, I deeply commend and support Senators Shapiro and Maiorella for taking the initiative to embark on the tedious but extremely important task of reviewing club budget applications, coming up with objective criteria for funding decisions, and then combining the funding decisions on over 150 organizations into a cohesive, balanced budget, including justifications where cuts were made. At the same time, a few other Senators were concerned that the final budgetary decisions were in essence only made by two Senators, and wanted to take part in this important process, but for whatever reason were ultimately unable to and thus wanted the one-week extension to add their input to the final numbers. I also suspect that a significant number of Senators wanted to hold off from making a final decision not because they were concerned with the legitimacy of the budget, but rather because the version presented at the last USG Senate meeting hurt their favored clubs monetarily and thus sought a final extension in order to ‘tweak’ the budget, a euphemism for ‘restore the cuts to my favored club or organization.’

The issue is further complicated by the need to maintain ‘viewpoint neutrality,’ a concept that enjoins the Senate from making funding decisions based on their personal opinion of a club or organization. For instance, just because a Senator is not a fan of the College Republicans, it does not give him or her the right to scoff at their funding increase, as one Senator (who shall remain nameless) did tonight. Senators must make objective criteria that judge a club’s final budget on neutral grounds, judging for example their ability to execute successful events, spend frugally, and make a convincing case at the Budget hearing. Senators Shapiro and Maiorella are rightfully concerned that the proposed motion to delay deciding on a final budget until next week, which passed by a 14-6 margin, will now create an opportunity for Senators to inject their personal opinion and other subjective criteria in these final days.

So, how will this turn out in the end? Senators Maiorella and Shapiro were extremely dissatisfied with the delay in passing the budget, so much so that they have resigned from the Budget Committee in protest. It is now up to those Senators behind the extension to do an extremely thorough and unimpeachable job during the next week in re-reviewing all of the Budget expenditures, in a manner that will hold up to minute scrutiny. Given the reasoning behind postponing the budget, as well as the frustration with a sizable minority of the Senate with that decision, it is difficult to imagine that the Senate will even pass any Budget at all if those behind the latest postponement cannot provide an extremely polished budget that addresses everyone’s concerns completely.

If that does happen, then all bets are off. Constitutionally, if the Senate does not pass a budget the decision devolves to the Executive Council, which has had three officials impeached this year, including the USG President. Furthermore, that chamber has rarely met with the required quorum to make decisions, and it is difficult to imagine how they would deal with an issue as important as the Budget. In addition, the Senate’s recent image as a competent and effective chamber will be tarnished irreparably, as the Senate’s most important role is to pass a balanced budget. I therefore fervently hope that the next week will allow all sides in this issue to take a step back, reassess their positions and the legacy they will leave as USG Senators, and work together to make a ‘fair’ budget, with ‘fair’ applying not to how the Budget treats a Senator’s favored club or organization, but in a manner that is equitable to all clubs and organizations and that reflects the best interests of the student body.

Another important event of note, largely overshadowed by this meeting, was the announcement made by President Pro-Tempore (PPT) Robert Romano to resign his position as PPT, effective at the end of the last Senate meeting. I have had numerous disagreements with Mr. Romano, on nearly every issue of importance regarding USG, but I believe that his heart has been largely in the right place and that he genuinely works and has worked to promote what he sees as the best interests of the student body, so it is with some regret that I bear this news of his resignation. It is unfortunate that Mr. Romano has taken the side of the disgraced USG President, Romual Jean-Baptiste, by choosing to defend him at his upcoming (and long-delayed) impeachment trial, the official reason for his resignation. Still, I hope that Mr. Romano does so in homage to the work of the great patriot, John Adams, when he defended at trial the British soldiers implicated in the ‘Boston Massacre’ over two centuries ago, and not for any other reason.

Stay tuned for next week’s Senate meeting, where the USG Budget saga shall hopefully come to a successful end, and hopefully not mutate out of hand to be remembered as the worst failure of this otherwise largely successful 2006-07 USG Senate.