T.J. Schneider may have had the last laugh Saturday night, but the ISU campus was the butt of the joke. When he vetoed a reallocation of funds from the Fall Activities Account to the Regular Allocations Account, Schneider saved his opus — the Fall Comedy Festival.

It was an event that didn’t need to be saved.

The festival was organized by Schneider and GSB Vice President Joe Darr in an attempt to “bring the campus together.”

They spent $28,000 on the event. Only 1,200 people attended. Giving out $23 to the first 1,200 students to show up on Central Campus would have accomplished this and garnered a larger turnout.

This is not the time for pet projects to outweigh the needs of the students. In the wake of a $175,000 budget hiccup and rampant deficit spending, student clubs and organizations are justified in expecting GSB to remedy this situation.

Dan Kline, off-campus senator and finance committee member, summed the situation up best in a quote given in a recent Daily article.

“GSB needs to do the job it is charged with by the State of Iowa [to allocate student fees],” Kline said, while calling the Comedy Festival a frivolous expense.

“No executive should rob from savings to fund a luxury,” he continued. These are bold words — that make a logical argument — from a very unlikely source.

This editorial board has been critical of the effectiveness of the GSB senate, framing a very apathetic picture of their achievements this term. While in the same breath, it’s given kudos to the seemingly mature proactive attitude the GSB executive branch has represented.

Ironically, it’s the senate that has effectively solved the problem and has proposed an immediate solution to the budget crisis.

With its four-part legislation, the senate has taken the steps to eliminate the debt and balance the budget before the current fiscal year ends. Here, the Senate has acted promptly and responsibly.

Meanwhile, the touted executives have chosen the wrong path. Instead of correcting an urgent issue, they have chosen to “save” a festival that died on the eve it was born.

If the current GSB president and vice president wish to save their event and leave a legacy, they should do so through next year’s administration. When asked about the failed Fall Comedy Festival during campaigning, now president-elect Mike Banasiak said the festival must start small, and then grow in future years. If $40,000 was allocated to the Fall Activities Account last year, then reasonably $20,000 should not be a problem to make a small, yet entertaining, festival.

Bottom line, the senate now has the responsibility to override the veto and end this budget fiasco.