Although some Government of the Student Body members have questioned the way funding bills have been passed this semester, others say the increased funding and speed of approval are only part of a more attentive senate.

GSB Finance Director Kristi Kramer said she has been concerned about the GSB Senate’s consistency of approving every campus group funding bill presented to it.

“We only have a certain amount of money to spend the entire year,” Kramer said. “As part of their duty as senators, they should understand the process and what will happen.”

Kramer said that GSB will undoubtedly experience a tighter budget this year because of lower student enrollment, but she isn’t sure when she’ll know how much money GSB will have to work with during regular allocations in the spring.

By Oct. 1, the senate had given out nearly $2,000 more to campus groups through special allocations processes than it had at that time last year.

There are, however, many possible explanations for this increase, Kramer said.

“At the beginning of the year, clubs are coming to us to try to get the funding they need right away,” she said. “I’m just seeing less opposition in the senate about bills being passed.”

Speaker of the Senate Henry Alliger said he, too, has noticed GSB senators haven’t been asking as many questions about groups’ need for funds as past senators have.

“It could be considered bad, I guess, but I think that people have also been doing more research outside of the meetings,” Alliger said.

But Alliger said it would be hard to say if funds are being allocated too quickly.

“It doesn’t do too much good to just sit on the money,” he said. “If they have a deserving cause, it doesn’t go against our policies and the senate agrees with it, then it’s a worthwhile cause to spend money on. But I do think being fiscally conservative is also important.”

Each year, GSB allocates $21,000 for use throughout the fiscal year to its senate discretionary account; the senate decides how to spend that money, which usually goes to campus groups that are new or did not receive money through regular allocations in the spring.

The money also helps to pay for events and registration and transportation to conferences. The discretionary account is not the only GSB funding source that has been used this year, however.

Both Alliger and Ben Albright, off-campus government senator, said the bills being brought forward this year haven’t been that controversial, which would explain why almost every funding bill presented to the senate passed with few reservations.

“The bills they are presenting have a better chance of passing because they are creating legitimate bills giving funding to groups,” Albright said. “Senators are doing a better job of getting information out to groups; they’re letting them know more about the finance process. There aren’t nearly as many pet projects as there used to be … senators would bring bills up that maybe they had initiated instead of having a student group coming to them.”

The only bill withdrawn so far this semester would have paid for lodging and parking expenses of Big 12 Leadership Conference attendees. GSB usually does not give campus groups funds for lodging, and the bill was withdrawn after debate within the senate.

Seven of the nine conference attendees are GSB members.

Kyle Perkins, College of Business senator, said he had originally endorsed the bill because he thought students willing to give something back to the community should receive some monetary assistance in doing so.