Where’s Your Plan?
Admittedly, I am a trim-the-fat, anticipate-needs, kind of budget hawk. I tried this at UF as a Senator just before the Voice campaign, and I also used that philosophy in crafting BOCC’s first $360,000 budget.
So, I admired Susan Henriques for her tenacity in her campaign to be very forthcoming on her website and to provide comprehensive, believable goals for the Finance office. She certainly is one of the more knowledgeable candidates to run for Treasurer.
But, I think I’m more bullish about Lola Bovell. Unite has posted her plan to balance the budget. It is concise, reasonable, and quite achievable. It cuts the fat out of SG’s budget so it doesn’t have to cut the budget of other student organizations, but makes the cut out of unnecessary expenses. I LUV IT!
I will say this, it took them a while to get on their feet, but it sure looks like Unite is on a roll now, and just in time, too.
Can I get started on the Lola for President buttons?
Yes Ken,
If Lola defeats Ryan and Susan, I think you could start working on the Lola for President buttons now. Then again, you’d be stuck right now if you spent money on Cosimi for President buttons like I predicted back in August. Looking back, I think Swamp would be MUCH better off with Lindsay running than John. She’d still have the black caucas’ support, but she’d definitely have more Greek support than John. Oh, if only they listened to me lol …
NAGAS
Having read the brief, let me get this straight,
Student Government is not supposed to tell the students what it does for them, (funding the union, student organizations, rec sports) because it is a waste of money? Doesn’t student government promoting itself tell students about Student Government and encourage them to use the resources available to them? Isn’t promoting things beyond the student organizations important?
I would agree the commercials are not the best, but if that same advertising money was used in the Alligator to promote Senate Seat openings, committee Meetings, and other SG business that is often only announced on the 3rd floor, would it be that bad. It’s not bad that SG advertises, it’s bad how they use it. That can change with the right leadership.
So we should get rid of our FSA lobbyist…. hmmm didn’t lola and jared have the opportunity to vote against funding FSA? Didn’t they have the opportunity to question funding it a long time ago, yet no nay votes then? hmmm can anyone say opportunism? Also to get rid of FSA means we completely lack a voice on the Board of Governors, great idea there. Also isn’t this the EXACT same arguement that Nikki made a couple years ago when pulling us out? SO don’t give me this crap that Nikki has no influence.
Cheaper elections??? well the students hasn’t passed online voting yet… so how could a budget made in the Summer be asked to prepare for that.. by the way it still hasn’t passed… so no use getting our panties in a twist about that 40K yet… Oh by the way, Jared and Lola had the opportunity to vote for several amendments authored by Susan to allow for online voting (they didn’t see fit then).
Oh by the way, the Superviser of Elections gets to choose the way it is to be done, if they believe paper ballots to be the only good option, you need to have the money for it, once again try again. So don’t blame the current administration for that.. try again.
As for the food accounts, the SG execs are paid a small amount of money, yet they are expected to be on call consistently. They need to travel, they need to answer phone calls from administration. They have hundreds of meetings they attend with campus leaders, administration, and their own staffs, I don’t think springing for Wendy’s is that bad of a deal, especially since SG President’s souls are owned by SG for an entire year. Seriously, I have seen the contract, it’s true.
As for the awards, I agree with lola. But let me make a small defense of them. Corporate america spends millions upon millions on these sort of plaques and other “good Job” rewards. I don’t think they would do it unless there was a reason. Coporate America cares about the bottom line, so what could the reason be to have these awards? hmmm, could it be that it encourages people to come back and continue to do a good job, even it was just a cheap 8 dollar plaque.
But in general, see my second post ever, about banquet. Let VPSA office run the banquet to recognize student leaders, give special seating to SG Execs if you must, and honor all student leaders.
No budget plan is perfect, but having one (whereas Ryan doesn’t, and Susan focuses on how to run the office) at least starts a debate. It gets people talking, and forcing a discussion of what we want out of SG.
I like the plan myself, but as an alumnus I won’t spend any more time on explaining why. But I like the plan all the more because she’s the first to come out with one. It shows a sense of leadership, putting substance to rhetoric.
A debate over SG – not just a pushing of priorities – is a good thing, even if the plan that starts the debate has flaws.
Oh by the way, Student Organizations too often insist on the maximum amount of growth every year. This is anywhere from 2-5% with some organizations harping for thousands and thousands of more dollars.
The reason I would be upset, that’s right. Most organizations leave a substantial part of their budget untouched. Some leave 1000s of dollars and then go back and ask for thousands more. The budget committee comes out bad guys no matter what in this situation. You tell an organization, no you can’t bring in a speaker that nobody has heard of, and you become budget nazis. You tell an organization, that they spent too little of their budget consistently over the bast 3 years, and you want to cut them. And again you are the bad guys. Unless you completely fund all student organizations, how do you ever become teh good guys?
Ken,
Kudos for coming out with it, but what is the use if it is completely flawed in logic and history. We have the voting records that will show their votes. We can show the questions that were asked of the budget when presented. And maybe I am wrong (and I could be) but the budget is made in the summer by the budget committee, wasn’t lola on that committee? If I am wrong, I stand corrected. Wouldn’t she have had input into the budget? Why not bring these issues then?
In talking priorities, she (Unite) obviously has the wrong priorities. Again, this smacks of opportunism, their track records show something completely different. Why do they choose to run from them? Why now are they only concerned about these things when they had the opportunity to made an issue of them earlier? End of Politics as Usual, same old stuff really.
The budget, in fact, has always been more than balanced. You see, we don’t budget money for reserves yet there is always money in it … that’s because organizations spend less than they are budgeted and the rest ends up in reserves. We don’t have a budget problem and Lola’s plan to cut waste at the sg executive level is fine, but the fact that most of that cut comes from lobbying and she doesn’t know what to cut is sad. The lobbying debate has been going on for years, she isn’t starting one now. So you could say that her balanced budget is simply continuing the conversation that is already started, nothing new. Also I agree with Gatorman, she is a flip-flopper whenever the time is ripe. I’ve seen her work on budget and she doesn’t have a clue what she is doing she just wants to give money to everyone and smile regardless. If she were in charge of the money we would be in debt, I doubt she could ever turn anyone down.
Seems either the susan or the swamp people are nervous about lola. Hence the long post attacking her.
If I was Susan I would be thankful for lola, because lola is the only one who will listen to Susan’s ideas if lola wins.
Lola will need someone to listen to…if you believe for a minute she wrote that plan of “hers” you are wrong. Don’t elect a puppet.
Who will you vote for if Susan is elimanted. Lola or Ryan? Lola, even if you think she is a pupet, is certainly better than ryan.
Long post attacking lola? Read NAGAS, or anything that Ken writes, or Virgil, for the most part the anon comments are always attacking the Swamp, as the one “pro” Swamp/John Boyles votes out there (on the blogs) I write more to defend…
As for why such a long post, it’s a policy statement, to use two words and stop on policy statements shows the other person has no understanding of the polciies to begin with….