Making offensive comments about your dead grandpa since 1918
Eye on the Prize Mark Rogers takes the reins from soccer legend Dick Mosher as head coach of the UBC women’s soccer team. Meanwhile, the team keeps up their game in the off-season against seasoned amateurs in the Pacific Coast Soccer League.
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the ubyssey
July 19, 2011 summer volume 28, number 6 room 24, student union building feedback@ubyssey.ca
ams forcasts multi-year deficit Despite referendum, budget still negative Arshy Mann webeditor@ubyssey.ca A few months after a fee referendum that the AMS claimed was needed to save them financially, the society is continuing to budget for the worst. The preliminary budget, which will be presented to AMS Council this Wednesday, plans for a $100,000 deficit despite an extra $400,000 in revenue that students will pay in fees over the next year. The financial hole is a result of flagging business revenues and increased administration costs. A few unforeseen events had to be accounted for, including the rise in the provincial minimum wage and the Canada Revenue Agency’s (CRA) attempt to tax the AMS’s businesses as for-profit. According to VP Finance Elin Tayyar, this budget is considerably more cautious than any other over the past few years. “We’re adjusting our expectations for our businesses to a more realistic level,” he said. “Last year we were expecting $900,000 [in revenue and] obviously we didn’t get anywhere close to it.” The budget also lowers expected revenue from sponsorships, allows for higher legal fees, expects a combined $48,000 loss from First Week and Welcome Back Barbecue and sets aside $149,000 as a contingency fund. However, if the contingency fund is not spent, then the AMS will not run a deficit. “That’s kind of important to understand [that] we’re not necessarily signing ourselves up for a $100,000 deficit. But we did want to be conservative.” According to Tayyar, the AMS’s goal is to stay afloat until the new SUB is completed, when they expect business revenues to rise, due to the new building’s appeal, rebranding, increased size and capacity of food outlets and longer hours. However, with the Whistler Lodge bleeding money and the AMS expecting less traffic in
the current building when construction begins on the new SUB, Tayyar expects that in the shortterm, the AMS’s businesses will continue to struggle. “We’re looking at a multi-year deficit,” he said. The AMS is also adding a number of administrative positions this year that will contribute to the deficit, including a director of operations, a director of student government and an extra position for their human resources department. They will also be reinstating a policy analyst. No Taxation Vacation
Earlier in the year, the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador ruled that the Memorial University Student Union had to pay taxes on their student pub and copy centre. The CRA is now questioning the AMS. “The CRA this year did an audit of our account and they came back saying that we would need to pay tax on our profit centres,” said Tayyar. Although the AMS plans to fight the CRA, they have budgeted enough to pay their taxes if they lose. Budget Woes, Years Past
Tayyar doesn’t expect a repeat of last year’s budget drama, when AMS Council held the budget up for a month over concerns regarding Block Party and executive spending. “We sent it out and we’ve had open consultation sessions. Very few councillors have actually showed up for that, so that’s a little bit of a concern. If there’s a huge problem with the budget as is...it’s because councillors haven’t actually done their homework and approached us with their issues. “I don’t foresee too many problems. But never say never.” U —with files from Kalyeena Makortoff