Before last year's referendum, the council could have tried to raise the fee without a referendum, proposed that the bill be indexed for inflation or pushed Lewis harder on a unilateral increase.
Now the council's actions are more limited.
"Our window was last year," Barkley says.
Marshall argues that the blame for the council's current situation falls on the council itself. If the council fails to impress students, students will never vote to give it more money.
A referendum in December won't pass, he says, "if we have another Springfest disaster," referring to the unplanned absence of amusements at last year's event.
The key is whether the council can effectively do more with less for now.
"If we do a good job this year, the chances of it passing will be good," Marshall says. "But we need to prove we deserve it."