Fuck this Budget
Rants

Daniel Watts dropped us a line in response to our last post. Apparently, he thinks that his plans are feasible, and he has a budget drawn out to prove it. So we took a look at it. In short, it's not feasible. To be more specific, certain parts are delusional, bordering on insanity. Plus, they don't provide it in excel format, so you have to crunch the numbers manually. Here are a few problems we noticed:

  • Watts' budget (we prefer to call it a psychotic episode on paper) assumes a whopping $58,750 will be acquired through sponsorships. $25,000 for Sungod, $25,000 for 'Son of Sun God,' and $8,750 for student services. Sure, sponsorships are a great idea, but this number is outlandish, and it is irresponsible to allocate money that isn't there yet. Watts might say that the money is highly likely to come through, but based on historical experience, it's a long shot. For someone who is trying to drive their campaign on the dubious strength of this budget, trying to sneak by such a misstep should be indicator enough that this slate will do anything to win a few votes. Counting on sponsorship money, especially an amount this high, is like trashing your house and burning all your possessions because you bought a lottery ticket which you're totally definitely sure will pay off.

  • Watts wants to get rid of one of two A.S. graphic designers, incredulously asking why on earth they would need two. Simple—they both work part time. These designers handle ALL of A.S.'s design needs—posters, flyers, logos—and there's a lot. We could fire one, but we would need to hire the other full time. Net savings = $0.00.

  • Watts wants to get rid of A.S. stipends entirely. Let's ignore most of these stipends and concentrate on the fact that the executive and commissioner positions are demanding enough to preclude any other sort of job. Those of us who need to work to get through college wouldn't be able to serve. We shouldn't have to point out that this is asinine.

  • Let's not forget that Tammie Nguyen, the Sungod Party's candidate for Commissioner of Programming, whose headiest experience includes not one but two Warren semi-formals (we're chuckling here), far and away lacks the experience to follow through with her slate's ludicrous pipe dreams regarding a second Sungod Festival.

The entire slate's platform seems to be "Let's fuck up the budget so we can have another spring music festival which may or may not suck ass." It was obvious enough to us from the beginning that Watts and his mindless cohorts were in this to grab votes by any means possible, but a few sentences of analysis should illustrate well enough for everyone else how craven and irresponsible this campaign really is.

We threw around the idea making our stance "Anyone But Watts!" But that's loser talk. Stay tuned for our official endorsements.

Co-authored with Nom de Guerre and Barrister X.

Prescott Andover, Apr 01 2005, 03:12 PM
Reader Comments

I love that this site tells it how it is. Watts is not to be trusted - His politics are shady and he's using creative marketing to trick the uninformed public into believing in his grandiose ideas. I predict though, that most uninformed students don't vote anyway, and those that do, know better. By the way, who gives a shit that he ran for governor anyway. He basically just wasted his money registering to run for governor and that's just the kind of irresponsible financial capability he would bring to the budget if given the chance. Let's face it though - even if by some miracle he did get into office, senate would never accept such a ridiculous budget anyway.

Posted by: ConcernedStudent [TypeKey Profile Page] on April 2, 2005 01:41 AM

A correction to our original post: the Sun God party wants to have the "Son of Sun God" festival at the end of first week of fall quarter, not in spring. They aren't publicizing this date much, probably because they know they can't pull it off, or would have to keep postponing their festival once they start to plan it. Ask anyone in the Programming office and they'll tell you that a concert/festival even approaching the scale of Sun God takes eight months, or even more, to plan--not to mention a budget much larger than $88,000, which is what the Sun God people have budgeted for it. The Sun God slate couldn't pull off their festival, even if they worked over the summer and magically got the sponsorships they say they can get.

Posted by: Satan's Homegirl [TypeKey Profile Page] on April 2, 2005 07:22 PM

Check out Watts' governor website (www.wattsforgovernor.com). Under experience he listed:
* Student Council Secretary, Blossom Valley Elementary School - Sept. - Dec. 1992

Student council secretary of Blossom Valley Elementary School? How on earth does that qualify for experience?

Posted by: Yossarian [TypeKey Profile Page] on April 2, 2005 10:45 PM

so glad he didn't win, though still depressed he beat hanson.
doesn't a full-time position cost MORE, due to benefits? silly watts.

Posted by: ASUCSD Revolution! [TypeKey Profile Page] on April 8, 2005 11:22 PM

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