Money again played a pivotal role during last night's Undergraduate Student Government (USG) Senate meeting, as the body voted to postpone legislation funding USG's main philanthropy due to insufficient funds.
The legislation requested $2,000 for the executive branch's annual Coaches vs. Cancer philanthropy.
At the beginning of the meeting, USG Treasurer Amy McKiernan reported the USG budget contained $1,560.91 for student programming.
However, $2,100 allocated two weeks ago to the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service has yet to be deducted from the USG budget, which would put USG in the red.
Last week, financial concerns caused the Senate to deny USG Supreme Court $366 for phone service in its new office, 222 HUB.
South Halls Sen. Andy Banducci said last night he was uncomfortable considering legislation giving money to outside groups when the Senate was in a deficit situation.
USG has not received most of its funds -- totaling almost $10,000 -- because money has been caught up in University Park Allocation Committee (UPAC) and Associated Student Activities since the beginning of the semester due to system changes and extra paperwork this year, McKiernan said.
She told senators to allocate money as needed, and assured them the money would be transferred to the USG account soon.
Another concern arose when the Senate UPAC liaison, Town Sen. Alexis Francois, suggested the UPAC money can only be used for USG's operational budget, not for student programming as the group had planned.
Because of the confusion, many senators said they thought it was best to postpone voting on the Coaches vs. Cancer legislation until they could research the technicalities of the UPAC money.
A bill allocating $133.95 for a downtown voter registration drive was also heavily debated for financial and legal reasons, but eventually passed by a vote of 22-2.
The registration drive would work with businesses to offer students a 10 percent discount for turning in new voter registration forms at the business.
However, the feasibility of the plan has not been determined by the State College borough.
Town Sen. Erica D'Eramo said she was also concerned about the legality of giving students discounts in exchange for their voter registration.
While most senators agreed voter registration was a worthy cause, some were still worried the money should not be spent until budgetary confusion was settled.
"We don't know how much money we have," Town Sen. Brian Battaglia said. "There's a good chance we're in debt right now, and if that's the case, we're in trouble."
Anne Hainer contributed to this report.
