$85,000 decrease in MSA’s carryover causes proposed funding cuts

The Missouri Students Associations budget is roughly $85,000 less than that of last year due to a drastic decrease in carryover funds.

Carryover is the money allocated to various MSA departments or auxiliaries that they do not spend. This unspent money gets added to the next fiscal year’s budget.

For the past four to five years, carryover has been around $100,000, MSA Vice President Zach Beattie said. For fiscal year 2014, carryover totaled roughly $15,000.

Beattie said the exact reason behind the decrease is unknown, but the fiscal year 2013 was probably just a tough year for everyone with increasing costs and expenses.

“I think (the decrease in carryover) caught everyone off guard because we’ve been used to having a large carryover in the past,” Beattie said.

According to the MSA budget for fiscal year 2012 the estimated carryover from 2010 to 2011 was $150,827. The estimated carryover from 2011 to 2012 was $101,879 according to the MSA budget for fiscal year 2013.

The decrease in carryover is causing Beattie, along with the other MSA executives and the Budget Committee, to cut funding for nearly every MSA auxiliary and department.

Although exact numbers are not finalized, the most drastic cuts will be made to students’ salaries, STRIPES, the Craft Studio, KCOU and MUTV, Beattie said. He also plans to cut every auxiliary and department’s travel budgets. Instead, they can apply to receive a part of pool of travel money or make a C&R request.

Although having a large amount of carryover is not encouraged, it is expected, Beattie said.

“Most of the time, the goal is to spend all of the allocation that you receive because we want students’ fees to be spent in the year they pay them so they see the impacts that year,” Beattie said.

Before he knew of the budget decrease, Beattie had been making departments look for the excess funding by asking what they would do with a 5 percent and 10 percent decrease in funding.

Beattie said he originally planned to keep the budgets the same for the departments, though, so he was confused by the $85,000 deficit until Chris Provorse, a Student Life business manager, discovered the decrease in carryover.

Then, Beattie began proposing cuts. He, along with other MSA cabinet members and the senate speaker, stayed at Shakespeare’s Pizza for five hours on March 7 until they balanced the budget.

Even as Beattie presented the budget to the MSA Budget Committee, the budget was still being updated as Beattie continues to meet with MSA auxiliary heads and department heads.

Beattie said everyone has been understanding and helpful throughout the process.

“Overall, everyone has worked with me to find a solution to this, because everyone knows we’re all on the same team,” Beattie said.

A finalized version of the budget will be presented Wednesday in MSA full Senate for discussion and approval.