The UC Office of the President recently decided to place a university-wide 1.52 percent tax on the expenses of ASUCD units.
In the past, money from individual campuses was centralized at the UC Office of the President before being redistributed. This new tax, however, will allow campuses to maintain control over their individual revenues while paying the 1.52 percent tax.
“It’s a 1.52 assessment from the Office of the President and is UC-wide. In the past, the Office of the President used to get all of the money, but now they are flipping it and every campus retains their own money,” said ASUCD Business Manager Brett Burns.
The decision was made by UC President Mark Yudof and it has been said that it was not an easy decision. Money from the tax will go to funding the UC Office of the President. Yudof left it up to the chancellors of each campus to choose where to find the funding for the tax.
Specifically at UC Davis, the ASUCD Coffee House will be assessed $67,175 and Unitrans $65,721 for the 2012-13 school year.
“They are phasing in ASUCD. They think that it takes off a slight burden, but it doesn’t do justice,” said ASUCD President Rebecca Sterling.
Over three years, ASUCD will need to assess the full tax, rather than the one-third it is currently responsible for. For the first year ASUCD will pay one-third of the tax, for the second year two-thirds of the tax and for the third year the full 1.52 percent tax.
“We are pretty scared about how it will impact things like the Coffee House and Unitrans. How many students employed, prices offered and hours open will be affected,” Sterling said.
When the tax was first being considered, ASUCD knew it would need to bear the burden, but was upset that it would need to assume the tax.
According to Sterling, ASUCD is confident that it will be funded through the first year, but is worried about what will happen once the assessment triples.
“I think two years from now ASUCD will be making different decisions,” said Melanie Maemura, ASUCD Controller.
As ASUCD Budget Hearings approach, ASUCD is working to adjust the budget to allow for the new tax.
DANIELLE HUDDLESTUN can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.
Lukacs, how do you suggest ASUCD “put a stop to it”? You do realize it is a subdivision of Student Affairs, and has to follow the same rules as any other campus administrative unit. I’m not being facetious, I’m actually curious if you have an idea.
Yes, ASUCD is a division of student affairs. No, they don’t *have* to follow the rules attendant to the bureaucratic structure of the university as if those rules were as natural and as invariable as the law of gravity.
They could shut down the buses. They could organize a student strike. They could do a lot of things, but they will sit in meetings and decide that some missed classes will “hurt students” but allowing more of their money to be stolen won’t.
Hey, another way to take students’ money! Will ASUCD put a stop to it, or just hold a bunch of meetings where they express faux outrage?