After a down-to-the-wire meeting Friday night, the Student Assembly voted to pass the Student Association budget, capping off one of the most fitful budget approval procedures in recent memory.

The budget, which allocates $2.3 million to SA-chartered student groups, passed with a 17-11 vote. The meeting was convened at 11:09 p.m., just 51 minutes before the official deadline to pass the SA budget.

The meeting lasted a scant 30 minutes, far shorter than the first budget hearing, which lasted nearly 11 hours. The length of the initial meeting has been widely attributed among Student Association Executive Board and Assembly members to the new procedure that guaranteed that every Assembly representative would be able to make a motion regarding the budget.

Adam Shamah, the SA vice president for finance, acknowledged that this year’s procedures presented significant problems. He noted that there was widespread consensus and enthusiasm that the procedures should be fixed for next year.

BUDGET CHANGES

Friday’s budget differed from the first version, which passed April 20 and was effectively overturned by a decision of the Student Association Judicial Board.

‘Some of the mistakes that were made were fixed,’ Ed Mays, SA treasurer, said.

The new budget did not uphold the $5,000 cut to Juvenile Urban Multicultural Program (JUMP Nation) that was approved in the April 20 version. Some other groups also saw some changes in their budgets for next year as a result of the new budget.

Relay for Life, which initially was not allocated any funds, received a $7,500 increase. The Binghamton SnoCats retained $750 of the $1,000 increase initially allotted to them.

The rules of Friday’s hearing also saw some changes from April 20.

Assembly chair Elahd Bar-Shai said that no member could move, speak or vote on any motion related to any group with which they were involved.

This was a change from the last meeting in which at least four Assembly members motioned to increase the budgets of groups with which they were directly affiliated.

THE ROAD TO THE BUDGET

A series of atypical events punctuated this year’s budget approval process. The procedures for the budget hearing, which must be drafted and approved anew each year, were drafted later than usual because of a vacancy in the office of vice president for finance. The VPF is responsible for drafting the procedures.

The initial budget hearing, held according to the new procedures, which guaranteed every Assembly representative an opportunity to amend the budget, led to increases in the budgets of several student groups, as well as some internal SA accounts.

However, the SA Executive Board filed a grievance against the Assembly. The SA Judicial Board ruled that the Assembly violated the Equal Opportunity clause in the SUNY Board of Trustees Policy.

The SA Judicial Board ruled that ‘student groups with one or more members on the Assembly have an unfair advantage when it comes to the motions made for budget allocation; not all groups have this opportunity to obtain an increase.’ Their decision required the Assembly to start the budget process over.

‘I’m really looking forward to the changes next year,’ Mays said, referring to potential plans to revamp the budget process.

Those plans, according to Mays, would include adding budget procedures that would be more efficient and constitutional and that would be tested for their efficacy. Mays also hopes to see the procedures made a permanent part of the SA bylaws so that they do not have to be remade every year.

Shamah indicated that those plans could also include a second appeals process for student groups that would be integrated into the Assembly budget hearing.

Mays said he also expects that the Financial Council would be required to be more transparent with the rationale for the decisions made in its budget proposal to the Assembly.