The Student Association finance committee scrapped plans for the proposed budget increase for next year.

The committee made its final recommendations on all 70 budgets for fiscal year 2004 in the final finance committee meeting before the last SA senate meeting of the year.

SA Treasurer Shaun Crisler proposed a $154,479 allocation for the SA, the same amount allocated for the current fiscal year. Crisler’s original request was for $294,000.

The finance committee cut $197,000 from the original organization’s budgets that were reviewed in the previous meetings.

The purpose of the cuts was to get the total budgets down to the allocation of $1,346,000.50. The SA plans on requesting a budget allocation of $1,384,000 from NIU.

The difference, Crisler said, will be to fund the Big Time Entertainment committee, whose purpose is to allocate $37,500 for “big time entertainment.”

Crisler has set aside this funding allocation for the BTE, money that would otherwise go toward other organizations.

The BTE committee was suspended by SA President Kevin Miller on Feb.16 and has yet to be reinstated.

The finance committee also is recommending large cuts and increases to other SA-recognized organization’s budget requests.

The committee recommended a $43,000 increase in the Campus Activity Board’s budget from this year’s allocation. WKDI Radio Station was recommended to receive no funding for next year.

Many other organizations received funding cuts and changes.

“I’ll be rewriting their whole budget for them,” Crisler said about the round-figure cuts the committee made to the budgets on Thursday.

During discussion of the BTE, some finance committee members raised concern about the diversion of funding.

“Some of the organizations that we are cutting here … we can put money back into them,” said Crystal Hoppe, finance committee member and SA senator, of the BTE funding.

Hoppe raised concern that since some of the organizations are receiving zero funding, the funding BTE would get can go to them.

“Because the bill was written for the general reserve, our number is $1,346,000,” Crisler said. The wording of the BTE bill says the money for BTE committee comes from the SA’s general reserve.

Jeff Meyer, finance committee member and SA senator, made a motion to allocate funding for the budgets under the assumption they were working with $1,384,000. The motion was shot down in a 3 to 4 vote by committee members.

The budgets will be presented to the SA Senate at 6 p.m. Sunday in the Holmes Student Center’s Clara Sperling Skyroom.