Associated Students Finance Board and Legislative Council met Monday afternoon to hear funding requests from various boards, committees and departments within the organization to divvy up money for next year’s budget.

The Summary of Requests spreadsheet presented at the meeting showed that several of the subdivisions within A.S. asked for more money than was allocated this year – with 33 branches of the student government asking for a total of $635,779.01 for the next year. Amongst the various A.S. groups asking for increased budgets, the office of the external vice president for statewide affairs, which received $5,000 this year, is asking for $17,000 next year, the summary stated. The Constitution and By-Laws Committee is requesting $150 next year, after it received no money this year. A.S. Legislative Council was allocated $2,100 this year and is proposing $11,000 for next year.

A.S. President Cervin Morris, a third-year English major, said A.S. is still strapped for cash next year.

“I think we should all just agree that we are broke,” he said. “We’re just broke.”

But some A.S. entities asked for less money than they were allocated this year. The office of external vice president for local affairs was given $600 this year, and it is requesting $575.01 for next year.

Monday’s meeting is the first step for A.S. Finance Board in forming a budget for the 2005-06 school year. The board will meet in closed session next week to discuss each A.S. entity’s funding requests. The president will then release his budget proposal in the spring, after which the A.S. Legislative Council can vote to make revisions to the proposal. The council must ultimately vote to approve the budget and its revisions before it’s official.

After the final budget is enacted in the spring, the remaining money is deposited into an unallocated fund from which A.S. Finance Board draws to appropriate money to help on-campus groups fund activities and events. Morris said it would be hard to meet the groups’ requests and still have money left for clubs and organizations.

“If everyone got what they want I believe we would be in deficit. It doesn’t look like anything will be left in the unallocated fund,” Morris said.

The A.S. Finance Board had $3,359.07 available to give to student clubs this quarter, but it distributed the entire sum just two weeks into the new year. The board gave away $3,889.65 in Fall Quarter 2004, also completely emptying out its pockets to student organizations.

Morris said the budget for the 2005-06 year would increase slightly from the current amount of $3,040,480.03 because of the UCwide three-percent increase in staff salaries. The Summary of Requests said money allocated to pay for the tuition of the A.S. executive officers increase from $29,311 to $30,100 because of recent fee hikes.