In a unanimous vote, ASUNM senators passed their spring 2004 budget Wednesday - allocating about two-thirds of the available funds to ASUNM executive agencies.
The Associated Students of UNM spread $499,418 across 122 groups, with ASUNM executive agencies receiving $344,687 of those funds.
Sen. Jenny French, chairwoman of ASUNM's Finance Committee, said the committee bases its allocation decisions on how many people are served by the group requesting funds and how many people are involved in the organization.
"We serve the entire student body," French said. "Some organizations only serve the eight people that are in the organization. And we can't really say, 'no Homecoming next year, sorry'."
Vice President Amanda Sims said the money makes up the operating budgets of executive agencies such as Student Special Events, which received $104,585, and the Southwest Film Center, which received $60,022.
"SSE and SWFC, they would like to have everything free, but in order to offset some of the cost they do charge for tickets," said Martin Tong, accountant for the Student Government Accounting Office. "But the actual numbers that it takes to run these programs, they rarely break even or rarely make a profit."
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The budget still needs to be signed by ASUNM President Jennifer Onuska, and groups can't access funds until July 1.
The spring budget process is one of three that occur during the year, and is strictly focused on groups' general operating expenses. Requests for one-time expenses on items like computers or trips to conferences are reserved for the fall budget process or the special appropriations process, which groups can initiate once a semester at any time.
Tong said groups' requested funds are almost never given in their entirety, and this is explained to them during the workshops that happen before the budget process. He said the submitted requests totaled about $700,000, so the finance committee had to make careful decisions.
He added that the committee has to evaluate whether purchases will be frivolous or inappropriate.
"Reductions are necessary for all groups to get funding and for them to balance the budget," Tong said.
He said the executive agencies also didn't receive all the money they requested. Their budgets were cut down, too.
French said reductions are usually made during the hearings, so groups are usually fairly clear on why they happen.
Tong said there are standing rules for how the money is allocated, some of which are focused on how long the group has been around.
"If a group has been around five or 10 years, there's a good chance they're going to be around for years to come," Sims said. "We feel confident giving them a large amount of money because we know that next year, they're going to continue on with their service. It's not like we're just going to have wasted that money on that one year."
After the ASUNM executive agencies, Scribendi, the UNM Honors Program's literary magazine, received the next largest sum, which was $10,000. The other 105 groups received anywhere from $13 to about $3,000.
