Personally, I pay little attention to the budget : )
But I know Juampi and Cyril very closely monitor it.
I am unclear if the dashboard is fully reflective of funds that are earmarked for upcoming expenses, but I imagine if it says $500k that the bulk of that is “already spent,” as they say.
Seems like a SIP for this would be very straight-forward. The decision would then rest in the hands of the community and the funds would be drawn from a significantly better lined pot of money.
Breaking this down a bit further…
12 delegates + 4 DA’s + Kunta & Cyril + any highly-active SC or AB member who might wanna sport the DAOs’ badge on their X = Maybe 20 or so badges
20 badges x $50 x 12 months = $12k/year
$10k year for Premium + $12k/year for badges = $22k/year
Of course, those numbers are assuming badges all around (and ignoring the risk factor outlined above, which should also be included in the SIPs risk analysis)