MSA vice president drafts budget
Published March 2, 2004
The 2004-2005 Missouri Students Association budget will not change much from the 2003-2004 budget, Vice President Kara Heppermann said.
She said she has been working on the budget since her inauguration.
She completed a rough draft of the budget on Monday and will submit it to the MSA Senate Student Fee Review Committee after Student Life Fiscal Officer Cathy Hurst looks it over, committee chairman Matthew Sokoloff said.
"I put in everything that everyone wanted and came over $40,000 over budget, so I went back through and tweaked things," Heppermann said.
She said she met with organizations that asked for funding to discuss why they needed the money.
"Hopefully any questions we have, she's already had answered," Sokoloff said.
Heppermann said the budget allocates about the same amount to each organization as it did last year.
"Some of the salaries paid have to go up," she said. "The money that is usable after salary payments is about the same, if not a little less, than last year. The budget is pretty close to the way it was last year."
The most dramatic change to the budget was an allocation of $28,540 to the Department of Student Services operating expenses to pay the salary of a new Web developer, she said.
"The Web designer will be available to help any group develop a Web site," she said.
The DSS advertising budget was cut because the Department of Student Communications pays for the ads for DSS programs, Heppermann said.
DSC voluntarily decreased its budget, she said.
"Director Nick Trusty said he didn't need as much travel money as was previously allocated," she said. "His goal is also to increase advertising, but be more efficient with the money, which is always good."
Other groups that might see an increase in their budgets include the Rape Education Office and STRIPES, Heppermann said.
"STRIPES' budget may go up because they are having a hard time getting sponsors because the economy is bad," she said. "We want to make sure they can continue to run. Their overall budget is the same as last year, but the money from us is more. The Rape Education Office's budget went up because the things they requested were reasonable compared to the amounts they spent last year."
MSA President Brian Laoruangroch said Heppermann has been working hard on the budget.
"She's been focused on talking to people to ask them why they need the funding." he said. "It seems like people have asked for less money."
Heppermann said she doesn't think one person should do the entire budget and she welcomes input from the Student Fee Review Committee.
"I think they'll help come up with something better than if it were just me working on it," she said.
Heppermann said she doesn't foresee many significant changes to the budget she prepared.
"The budget total is about $2,000 more than last year. In the grand scheme, that's not very drastic."