Sacramento State Associated Students, Inc. is projected to lose nearly $700,000 in the 2021-2022 school year as the student government plans increased employment spending and predicts revenue losses across its campus programs.

Mark Montalvo, ASI financial and administrative director, presented budget projections at the ASI meeting Wednesday. The budget predicts that ASI will operate on a deficit, going for a more conservative budget due to the large number of unknown factors regarding COVID-19 regulations. 

Montalvo also mentioned a projected decreased revenue from several campus programs, such as rentals from the Aquatic Center or Peak Adventures, due to the COVID-19 pandemic as playing a factor in the budget deficit. Overall, the budget projects ASI will generate $226,507 less in revenue in the upcoming school year compared to the current one.

“Normally during the summer, when it’s hot, we would have anywhere from 900 to 1,000 rentals during one day,” Montalvo said regarding the number of rentals at the Aquatic Center. “That’s going to be scaled back to 200 to 300 rentals per one day.”

The largest increases in expenses in the 2021-2022 school year are in wages and employee related expenses, $387,185 more than the current school year’s budget. However, 2021-2022 employment spending is just $54,189 more than the 2019-2020 budget, which was approved in April 2019.

Due to the pandemic, ASI lost $1.7 million in revenue in 2019-2020 and reduced its budget by $688,074 between the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 budgets.

The total $336,510 increase in expenses brings total 2021-2022 spending to $367,057 short of the total spending in the 2019-2020 budget.

“ASI is slowly beginning to increase operations for next year,” Montalvo said via email. He said increased expenses in the next year include hiring more students and the California minimum wage increase from $14 an hour to $15 an hour.

The move of expenditures closer to pre-pandemic levels combined with the estimated loss in revenue mean ASI projects to lose $690,308 in the 2021-2022 school year.

ASI also voted to allocate $50,000 from its Dollars for Organizations and Clubs fund to the ASI Student Employment grant for the 2021-2022 budget.

ASI Vice President of Finance Prabhjyot Shinh said because many clubs on campus are not operating at full capacity at this time, funds from DOC will be better utilized to support students in the employment grant.

“This way, we would be better able to support our students by ensuring that they are getting on-campus jobs, and in one way or another, decreasing the financial hardship that students are facing,” Shinh said.

ASI also voted to give a donation of $100 to the Out of the Darkness Campus Experience, an event hosted by Sac State’s Active Minds club in support of suicide prevention. The Out of the Darkness campus experience took place Thursday at 5:30 p.m. 

ASI passed a resolution in support of the federal government doubling the pell grant to $12,990. ASI President Noah Marty said this resolution was passed in an advocacy effort to help reduce the financial hardship of students that receive the grant as well as index the grant to adjust it for inflation.

ASI also passed a resolution in support of Assembly Bill 396, which would expand eligibility for CalFresh food stamps if passed in the California legislature. ASI also passed a resolution in support of AB 367, or the Menstrual Equity Act, which would mandate free menstrual products in women’s bathrooms for schools with grades 6-12 if passed in the California legislature.

Additional reporting by Camryn Dadey.