MSU administrators will soon receive proposed changes to the way student groups ask their peers for tax money.
The Student Tax Committee has been meeting since last year to clarify a 20-year-old policy on enacting new student taxes.
"We felt a need to review it in terms of whether there needed to be other changes to bring it up to date," said Lee June, vice president of Student Affairs and Services.
Students began to vote on taxes after the MSU Board of Trustees' policy went into effect in 1984.
The committee was designed to "make the process reflect more of the current situation on campus," said Cathy Neuman, assistant director of Student Life. She said the code was originally written when registration was centralized, and most students voted when they registered.
"Most students were certainly available to vote because it was right there in front of them," she said.
Under the current policy, at least 50 percent of students affected by the tax must vote in order for the result even to be considered.
Garnering that many votes for a tax is a rare occurrence, officials said.
Problems with the current threshold, or minimum number of voters, arose with last spring's vote on a $5 clean energy tax. The tax, proposed by environmental student group Eco, drew less than 4,000 of MSU's nearly 35,000 undergraduate students.
More than 75 percent approved the measure, but the tax was not considered because not enough students voted.
To improve the policy, Eco member Michael Mignano suggested eliminating minimum turnout.
"If you have a threshold, you say those who voted don't count," he said, adding there is no voting threshold in national elections.
On Wednesday, Residence Halls Association's General Assembly voted 20-0, with one member abstaining, in favor of maintaining a minimum turnout for new taxes.
Missy Kushlak, who also sits on the committee, said they're searching for a point where a reasonable and representative number of students will vote.
"We want it to be possible for students to make changes on campus," she said.
Tom Edwards, internal vice president for RHA and committee member, called the committee "more of a focus group."
"We're a work group getting all the fleshy stuff out of the way," he said.
Additionally, the group will work to clarify existing code language - committee members said there is some confusion regarding whether a proposed tax is a modification of an existing tax, or a new tax altogether.
If a tax is new, voter turnout has to meet the threshold.
If it's a modification, such as increasing an existing tax, any number of voters is acceptable.
Rick Shafer, associate director of Student Life and Judicial Affairs, said although June has the opportunity to step in directly, the committee's recommendation will most likely go to the University Committee on Student Affairs.
"It's consistent with the spirit of institutional government," Shafer said.
June said he expects to hear the committee's formal report by the end of the term but not before the March election.
Owen Graduate Association member Andrew Chen, who sits on the committee, said if the University Committee on Student Affairs or June reject the committee's recommendation, it will most likely be sent back for review and modification.
"I don't have any reason to believe it will be rejected. We're going to do our best to avoid that," he said.
