The TCU Senate and its budget coordinator forgot more than $50,000 of expenses when it set this year's budget. This egregious oversight was committed repeatedly by treasuries in previous administrations, but due to surplus constraints will only now cost many students groups dearly. But exactly how disserviced student groups will be will depend on the steps taken by this year's budget team.
The current Treasury is burdened with the responsibility of making good on mistakes made by its predecessors. But the need to right this unfortunate wrong should not lead to the rash decision of recovering the newfound deficit immediately by slashing funds to groups for the upcoming year. Rather, the recovery process should be spread over the next two or three years to minimize the impact of the shortfall. The Treasury has wisely decided to use last year's surplus operating budget to pay down part of the deficit, but a very significant chunk of the money still remains, which is too much for student groups to bear in one fiscal cycle.
While the deficit represents only about 5 percent of the total budget, its impact is sure to be conspicuous. In an e-mail to students, the TCU Treasurer and Assistant Treasurer pointed out that even if the number of organizations and budgets precisely maintained last year's levels, wide cuts would have to be made. The fact that there are several new student groups and that the economy has grown through another year of inflation makes it clear that recovering the entire difference during this month's budgeting process will be agonizing. This is underscored by Treasurer Ben Lee's suggestion that the Senate simply scrap next year's Fall Fest in order to make up the difference.
The Treasury and budget coordinator must realize that this painful process can be avoided. Every budget has long-term provisions. Spreading this loss over two, or even three years, would have a far less detrimental impact on the budget. While the desire to fix this snafu as soon as possible may be large, the budgeters should make the prudent decision to put student groups' welfare before political damage control.
