The Student Association’s budgeting process, which one senate member considers the most important duty of the SA, has been disrupted by Thursday’s disbanding of the SA Senate.

Former SA Senate Speaker Joe Annunzio said at a press conference Sunday that the SA’s most important job is financing SA-related organizations.

The senate was removed Jan. 26 after the SA Supreme Court ruled the 1986 SA senate voting redistricting plan unconstitutional. Senate elections could be held Feb. 7, if districts have been designated, SA Elections Commissioner Robert Perry said.

SA Treasurer Diana Turowski said she has been hit hardest by the removal of the senate. She heads the SA Finance Committee, which recommends organizations’ budgets to the senate for approval.

However, SA bylaws state the committee needs 50 percent of its members to be senators so it currently cannot recommend budgets, Turowski said. The committee can meet but cannot make decisions, she said.

The disbanded senate has “delayed the recommendation process for organizations,” Turowski said. The earliest the committee could meet after a new senate is elected is Feb. 14, she said.

Turowski said according to her planned schedule of recommending budgets, the budgeting process would have been completed by spring break. She said when a new committee is formed, she might have to work Monday through Friday to finish budgeting before the semester ends.

SA President Paula Radtke said budgets approved by the senate are valid because of “contract liability.” Turowski said it is illegal to ask the 12 organizations that have been allocated funds to return the money.

Organizations can still draw on their accounts, and supplemental funding can be allocated, Turowski said. In an emergency, the SA Executive Board is allowed to allocate one percent of student funds—about $7,000—to organizations, she said.

Turowski urged former senate members who served on the finance committee to run again so new senators do not have to be trained to finish the remaining budgets.

“Training new senators is hard,” Annunzio said, referring to members of the finance committee.

Former SA Senator Jim Ruzicka said it takes between two and three months to explain to new finance committee members how the SA budgeting process works. He said the SA will experience short- and long-term effects due to the senate’s removal.

Dave Emerick, SA mass transit adviser, said, “Actions the (SA) Supreme Court took will not affect services provided by the SA.”

The Huskie Bus system’s schedules and routes will not be altered, Emerick said. Mass transit board meetings will be held every Monday because the board is not required to have a certain number of senators on the committee, he said.

SA Welfare Adviser Lisa Gunn said the security phone system also has not been hurt by the non-existing senate. She said the referendum that passed Jan. 24 does not have to be approved by the senate because students already showed that they wanted the system.