The Associated Students of Madison Student Council approved ASM's internal budget of over $1.1 million Wednesday.
The budget was amended and finalized by a conference committee Sunday and approved by the Student Services Finance Committee Monday before being taken to the full Student Council for approval Wednesday.
The conference committee made several changes to the budget Sunday, including adding $8,000 to create new shared governance positions and cutting $10,000 from housing and tenant support services.
Sunday's conference committee also voted against cutting stipends for ASM and SSFC members, as well as cutting the creation of a paid position to assist the ASM chair.
Although the final budget passed with a 16-6 vote, several ASM members said they felt parts of the budget required further discussion.
Rep. Max Love said he felt the budget did not represent the general interest of the student body.
""I just don't agree with this budget,"" he said. ""There is a large amount of discretionary spending.""
Love said he did not believe increasing the stipends for ASM staff or creating a paid position to assist the ASM chair was fiscally responsible.
Many council members, however, said they felt the budget was fiscally responsible and beneficial to the student body overall.
ASM Secretary Kurt Gosselin said he felt the addition to tenant rating website funding was necessary to get the website off the ground since it recently faced difficulties getting started.
""This will be similar to Rate My Professor,"" he said. ""Students can use this as a resource to figure out where to live or not to live.""
ASM Shared Governance Chair Melissa Hanley also discussed plans for the creation of four new shared governance positions that would cost about $8,000 total.
She said with the new positions she hopes to reach out to more students on campus, connect with more student organizations and work more closely with the administration.
