State budget cuts have now become student government budget cuts.

Student Government Assosiation is expecting a $15,000 to $17,000 decrease in its 2004-2005 budget as part of university-wide budget cuts. The cut may affect SGA’s campus improvements committee and organizational aid.

The cuts were announced at Tuesday’s SGA meeting by Nick Todd, SGA vice president of finance, and Charley Pride, director of student activities and organizations.

The Campus Activities Board will also have its budget cut, but the amount isn’t known, CAB Assistant Azurdee Garland said.

“It’s not going to matter that we have been cut, we’re still going to have some good programing,” she said.

SGA President John Bradley said there is room in their budget to make accommodations for the changes to the budget.

“Student government can do a lot of work with little money,” he said. “But the less money we have, the more the administration will see our faces and hear our voices.”

The decrease in SGA’s budget is expected next year because the university’s restricted tuition accounts, which include SGA, only receiving money from either enrollment growth revenue or the Higher Education Price Index, the university’s budget cut plan states.

The restricted tuition accounts, which had previously received money from both, will get the greater of the two amounts, the plan states. SGA also gets money from student activity fees.

SGA will end up with about $90,000 next year without both of the revenue streams, Bradley said.

SGA had $105,000 at the beginning of this academic year, he said.

HEPI calculates higher education inflation, the budget plan stated. Restricted tuition accounts receive an increase equal to this amount.

Restricted tuition accounts also receive enrollment growth revenue when enrollment increases and more students pay tuition.

Bradley said HEPI has allowed SGA to do many things they weren’t able to do before.

“Because of the additional money that we’ve received from HEPI, we’re able to give more money back to the students through organizations,” he said.

The campus improvements committee may be most affected because it receives the largest portion of the SGA budget, he said.

Gene Tice, vice president for student affairs and campus services, said the freeze across his division this semester will continue because the cuts have been substantial.

“It’s definitely going to have an impact,” he said. “We’re not going to be doing much spending until now and the end of the fiscal year.”

Reach Ashlee Clark at [email protected]