The ASUC's financial crisis continues. Reactions differ on who leaked. The Daily Cal is doing a little 'gotcha!' dance of glee. Mr. Falcone is denying everything. Mr. Gabriel is breathing fire. The Senators are shrugging. (Interesting note: it appears Senator Leybovich has acquired the position as the Daily Cal's go-to guy for good quotes.)

This leaves two unanswered questions on the radar: why did this screwup happen, and who's going to pay for it? The Daily Cal has some on the second question:

The $40,000 budgeted toward previously postponed improvements to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Student Union will most likely be included in the proposal, Gabriel said.

"There is a way to work with what we have this year," he said. "There are ways for us to solve this problem without hurting student groups. I have emphasized this to the senate."

If Mr. Gabriel can pay this debt without cutting the budgets of student groups, I'll give him the vaunted 'Calstuff ASUC Politician of the Year' award. But I don't think it's possible without borrowing money, which would be even worse.

The other question is: how did this happen? It appears blame is spread pretty evenly, but a good deal can be put on the shoulders of last year's Finance Officer, Thai Anthony-Lam. The chain appears to start on the Professional part of the ASUC on the fourth floor. There, someone neglected to mention that the Prop just passed applies to every year, and isn't just a one-off thing. Then blame passes to Mr. Anthony-Lam, who didn't notice that the ASUC had a financial obligation still. Blame goes from there to the 20 Senators who passed the Bill without noticing the missing debt. Blame also probably applies to the many observers who had reason to know but didn't speak up.

I wonder who was the first ASUC person to find this out. It must've been an interesting conversation. 'Hello, Mr. Berdahl? You said you have a check for $300,000 here, but I don't see it... We have $3,000 for BRRC, is that you?' Email This Post!