The STB Bombshell

It was John Judge (Chairman of the Board of Directors of STB) who dropped the bombshell that forced NZUSA to increase the levy merely to keep activities at the same level. This year NZUSA recieved $12,000 from STB from the sale of ISIC cards, and a further $13,737 as re-payment for services of NZUSA that are used by STB (eg. typists, xerox facilities etc.). Judge announced that it would not be possible for STB to continue to pay NZUSA any of the $12,000 from the sale of the ISIC's. He said that "in my opinion NZUSA has never been entitled to this money", further commenting that he thought the members of the Board would be liable to legal action against them if they continued to authorise the payment in view of the dire financial situation of STB.

Of the $13,737 paid for the use of NZUSA services, Judge said that he thought the amount charged was excessive and would have to be re-negotiated. His estimate of the bill was in the region of $7,500. Thus in five short minutes, Judge managed to cut NZUSA's budget by over $18,000. If NZUSA is going to maintain its activities into 1979 it is apparent that this income must be aquired elsewhere, and the only elsewhere is through levies. Assuming that there will be the same number of fee paying students next year as this (about 38,000), this means a levy increase of 47c per student.