ASCC Senate mainly discussed the 2017-2018 proposed budget which needs to be approved before the end of the semester.

In comparison to last year, senate quickly approved the majority of the budget, while leaving out some items to discuss.

The first item regarding administration requested $687,061.15, but only $623,573 was approved by senate.

Section Two involved ASCC clubs was partially approved, despite several items pulled out for discussion.

Among those items was full funding for clubs Phi Beta Lambda and Alpha Gamma Sigma.

Senator Lucio Ramirez motioned to increase PBL’s budget to $18,000, when the initial proposed budget was $12,780.

Senator David Ramirez objected to this motion for lack of consistency, saying if senate were to approve the full amount requested, it would automatically have to grant the same approval for other clubs that had partial funding.

Despite the objection, Senate approved a stance of support for PBL to receive the full amount requested.

Sergeant of Arms Eduardo De la Rosa said he didn’t think clubs should be rewarded with the funding the full amount requested.

In the meeting he said, “I believe in the program, I just don’t think we should [give] it more than our other honor societies.”

Ramirez is a former Treasurer and President of PBL feels biased about the clubs’ funding even though it was supported by senate to give full funding.

“I understand that cuts need to be made in order to ensure fiscal responsibility, but at the same time I feel like the students are being penalized for it and we should find a way to fund but without removing.

“I know it is probably like magic economics that I am thinking of but we can probably find a way,” he said.

The other club asking for full funding of $6,600 was Alpha Gamma Sigma, motioned by Senator Graciela Espejo.

The proposed amount the budget committee is willing to fund is $3,560. Espejo moved for senate to give a stance of support for AGS, but was denied.

ASCC Senator and Minority Leader Alex Ochoa feels that the budget approvals was overwhelming, albeit interesting because it is his first semester as a senator but considers the proposals the Budget and Finance Committee were taken into consideration for each club.

“I am sure if we had a larger budget, there wouldn’t be much of a discussion regarding the amount of money being disbursed to each club,” Ochoa said.

He thinks it is great that the clubs were asking for more money because, “with more monetary aid, [it will be] less of a burden on the students who are in these clubs.”

Section Three through Section Five were approved quickly in comparison to section two.

Although the majority of the budget proposals were approved, ASCC President Saul Lopez-Pulido thinks the meeting went as expected because he thinks that since there are 30 senators, each has a different opinion on where the money should be placed.

He doesn’t think there is going to be a roll over budget in comparison to last year’s budget, saying, “I think [the senators] are more trusting ultimately because they approved a good 90 percent of the budget, so I think there is definitely more trust in what the committee did.”

He expects the budget to be passed in full during the next ASCC Senate meeting on Wednesday, May 3 in BK 111.