Special Fee Requests

1. Any student organization seeking a Special Fee may submit a petition of members of the Association to the Commission. The information pages in each petition packet shall contain the detailed budget for the organization submitted for the following fiscal year, the original detailed budget for the current fiscal year, the most recently modified budget for the current fiscal year, an accounting of the expenses of the current fiscal year to date, and an estimate of the expenses for the remainder of the current fiscal year.

2. A detailed budget shall be a line item estimate of all planned expenditures and expected revenues, and their particular sources, to be generated by activities of the student organization during a fiscal year. This budget must contain line items for gross fee assessment income and fee assessment refunds, the latter to be a percentage of the former, this percentage being referred to as the budgeted refund rate.

3. Special Fee Refund Rates
   1. The budgeted refund rate shall be based upon estimates prepared by the Financial Manager of the actual refund rates incurred during the current fiscal year for each Special Fee.

   2. The budgeted refund rate shall not be greater than thirty per cent.

   3. If the Special Fee request is not placed on the ballot by Senate action, then the budgeted refund rate shall be approved by a two-thirds vote of the Senate, provided that this rate shall not be less than either the actual refund rate for that organization during the current fiscal year (if there was a Special Fee collected for that organization during the current fiscal year) or that the lowest actual refund rate incurred of any Special Fee during the current fiscal year (if no such Special Fee was collected during the current fiscal year).

   4. The Senate shall approve a budgeted refund rate for a student organization by either the Friday of the sixth week of Winter quarter, or at the Senate meeting which occurs at least 48 hours after the student organization presents their budgetary and other financial information to the Elections Commission, Financial Manager, and Senate , whichever occurs later.

   5. If the Senate fails to approve a budgeted refund rate on a timely basis, then this rate shall be either the actual refund rate for that organization's Special Fee during the current fiscal year (if there was a Special Fee collected for that organization during the current fiscal year), or the median of the actual refund rates incurred for all Special Fees during the current fiscal year (if no such Special Fee was collected during the current fiscal year).

4. The required budget information shall be presented in the following form:
   1. A numerical table, the columns of which shall represent the organization's detailed budget proposed for the following fiscal year, the original detailed budget for the current fiscal year, the most recently modified budget for the current fiscal year (if it differs from the original budget), the actual expenditures for the current fiscal year to date, and an estimate of expenditures for the remainder of the current fiscal year. Each row of the table shall represent one particular income or expenditure line item from the organization's detailed budget, and the appropriate entries shall be made for that line item under each of the column headings. For line items which apply only to the budget for the current fiscal year or the proposed budget for the following fiscal year, the entries under the columns referring to the year to which they do not apply shall be zeros. Line items may represent either types of expenditures or specific programs.

   2. A narrative text, which shall describe each line item and may contain more detailed information supporting the amounts of the proposed line items; commenting on differences between the organization's current budget, its actual and projected expenditures for the current fiscal year, and its proposed budget for the following fiscal year; or any other information deemed relevant.

   3. Organizations which receive at least half of their expected income from non-Special Fee sources shall have the option of dividing their budget into Special Fee funded and non-Special Fee funded portions.

5. The Special Charge of the Commission may specify additional requirements that the required budget must meet.

6. Any student organization seeking and receiving Senate approval for its Special Fee request must use the same detailed budget as was approved by the Senate on its petitions.

7. All expenditures must be for the organizational and basic programming expenses of the student organization requesting the Special Fee. This student organization shall be responsible for the spending of all funds, including those used in a co-sponsored event.

8. The Commission shall determine if any given budget meets these requirements. Before making such a determination, the Elections Commission shall seek the advice of the Appropriations Committee of the Senate and the Financial Manager concerning all Special Fee budgets which have not previously been approved by the Senate for placement on the ballot. Only if these requirements are met may a Special Fee request be place on the ballot. However, the budget of any Special Fee request which has been approved for placement on the ballot by an appropriate action of the Senate shall be considered to have met these requirements.

9. Any student organization seeking placement on the ballot of a Special Fee request on the basis of a previous Special Fee request as specified in the Constitution must satisfy the following requirements.
   1. The gross amount requested may not exceed the gross amount received in the organization's most recent Special Fee request, as adjusted for inflation, plus ten per cent.

   2. The organization's most recent Special Fee request must have been approved by at least 40%of those voting on the matter within the last two years.

10. No Special Fee request shall be placed on the ballot except in accordance with the provisions of Article V, Section 2 of the Constitution, and unless its budget meets all specifications detailed above. No Special Fee request whose placement on the ballot requires the submission of petitions shall be placed on the ballot unless the petitions submitted meet all of the above requirements.

11. Division of a Special Fee Request
    1. All budgetary and other financial information required for a Special Fee request to be placed on the ballot shall be presented by the student organization requesting the Special Fee to the Elections Commission, the Financial Manager, and the Senate at least two weeks before the last regularly scheduled meeting of the Senate during Winter quarter.

    2. Prior to this deadline, the budgetary and other financial information may be altered by the student organization requesting the Special Fee by so notifying the Elections Commission, the Financial Manager, and the Senate. After this deadline, the budgetary and other financial information may not be altered except with the consent of the Senate or of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

    3. The Senate may divide a Special Fee request at any time after this budgetary and other financial information has been presented. The student organization requesting the Special Fee shall be given at least 48 hours prior notice that such a motion may be introduced, and the sponsor of the Special Fee shall be allowed to speak before the Senate on this issue.

    4. The bill dividing a Special Fee request shall consist of two parts.
       1. The first part shall consist of a set of two sections, each section containing a budget, into which the original request of the student organization has been divided. For each line item, the sum of the amounts for that line item in the two sections shall equal the amount for that line item in the original request. The sum of the fee amounts to be levied for each section shall equal the fee amount originally requested by student organization, and each amount shall be sufficient to carry out the activities in the budget of each section. All other associated financial information shall be divided between the two sections in a similar manner. The Senate may add to either or both of the sections any additional explanatory material warranted by the division.

       2. The second part shall consist of zero or more sets of one or two sections, each section containing a budget, proposed by the Senate, together with their associated financial information and explanatory material.

       3. The bill dividing the Special Fee request may also provide for the placement on the ballot of either the organization's original Special Fee request, or of one of the alternative sets of budgets proposed by the Senate for that organization.

    5. The student organization requesting the Special Fee shall either adopt as its request one of the sets presented in the bill of division, or, if the deadline for submission of budgetary and other financial information has not yet passed, may submit a new request before that deadline. If a student organization submits a new Special Fee request after the Senate has divided a Special Fee request for that organization, then the Senate Appropriations Committee may act for the Senate and divide the new request.

       In making such a division, the Committee shall consider itself bound by the policy decisions of the Senate, especially those made when the Senate divided the request. Three members of the Council of Presidents concurring, such a division by the committee shall be rendered invalid, and the question of division brought to the Senate for final resolution. The Senate reserves the right to act upon the question of division on its own initiative.

    6. The Elections Commission shall consider valid those petitions containing either (1) the budget and associated financial information of any single section, these petitions being applicable to the placement on the ballot of only this section, or (2) the budget and associated financial information of both sections of one of the sets approved by the Senate, these petitions being applicable to the placement on the ballot of both sections, even if they do not make note of the division of the Special Fee request.

    7. If one section is approved and the other section is disapproved, then the Senate and the student organization requesting the Special Fee may agree to whatever budget modifications are necessary to provide for the support of essential administrative functions of the student organization whose absence would prevent the implementation of the activities specified in the approved section's proposed budget.