KU on Wheels has less than four months to get itself out of debt. The program has until the end of the 2008 fiscal year, or June 30, to pay off the $250,000 it owes to fund the University’s bus system.

Some officials say the debt was acquired after KU on Wheels signed a contract that was too expensive for the program’s budget. As staff members are seeking to put the program in the black, they are considering various ways to raise the money.

May Davis, Clay Center sophomore and transportation coordinator, originally reported a budget deficit of more than $400,000, but since then has lowered that figure to $247,000.

One option to lower the deficit is to transfer $3 from the acquisitions fee to the operations fee, which would pay off $141,000 of the debt. Transfering the money is possible because the acquisitons fee can operate in debt, but the operations fee cannot. Davis, a student senator, proposed this idea to Student Senate on Feb. 20. The bill was passed by the Student Rights Committee, and will be voted on by full Senate this Wednesday.

KU on Wheels borrowed money from the University to buy used buses, and the acquisition fee is used to pay off that debt. The transfer of funds would set back the payoff for one year until 2016, but Kaiser said the set back wouldn’t be a problem.

Another $121,000 would come from money left over from the transfer to the Parking Department, from higher-than-predicted cash fares and from lower expenditures in other areas of the budget. Higher fuel prices have contributed to the deficit.

Danny Kaiser, assistant director of Parking and Transit, and Davis are searching for a way to solve the remaining deficit of $62,000. They are considering renegotiating existing contracts that aren’t being used to their full potential. If they can’t find money elsewhere, they said they might use money from the reserve fund, which is money from budget surplus in previous years.

“One way or another, we’ll get the money,” Kaiser said.

Davis said that next year, fee increases will make handling budget problems easier. Student Senate voted to raise fees starting next year by $2.70, meaning that the $36 that KU students currently pay to campus transportation will be $38.70 next year. Davis said that although KU on Wheels may seek money from the Student Senate Reserve Account, the debt will not further affect student fees.

Kaiser said enduring this budget shortfall for a new contract was worth it.

“We have much better buses, better service, and the buses aren’t belching black smoke,” Kaiser said.

Davis said KU on Wheels will be able to pay off most of the debt, but it cannot account for $62,000 it will owe to MV Transportation.

The $36 campus transportation fee goes into two separate funds. This year the bus acquisition fee was $20, which was used to purchase new buses. The buses that are used with the new MV Transportation contract, some of which date back to 1987, are all used. The acquisition fee is used to buy new buses in small groups, so eventually, all the buses will be newer buses. Five new buses, which cost $338,000 each, will be used after spring break.

The other $16 in fees goes to the bus operations fund, which buys fuel, pays drivers and pays for other day-to-day operations. Right now, the bus operation area is in debt, but it must be paid off by the end of the fiscal year.

Kaiser said the University’s busing system wasn’t that big, so only two companies bid on the new contract.

Both Kaiser and Aaron Quisenberry, associate director of the Student Involvement and Leadership Center, said that the companies’ prices were much higher than expected.

“When you go for a new contract, you don’t know what you’re going to get,” Kaiser said.

Quisenberry said for his first ten years at the University, one of his jobs was to advise KU on Wheels. The program was under the authority of Student Senate until July 1, 2007, when the Parking Department took it over. He said until then, he helped write the budget and always tried to keep it where it needed to be.

“I wanted to see a successful system for students,” Quisenberry said.

When the budget was due for fiscal year 2008, which started July 1, 2007, Quisenberry had to write a budget without knowing if a contract with a new busing system would be signed. The transportation board approved the budget in April 2007, about a month after it voted to move KU on Wheels under the authority of the department.

He said he wrote about a 5 percent increase into the budget for inflation, but the ending cost of a new contract with MV Transportation was much higher than he or anyone else predicted.

Kaiser said another plan for the future was to provide universal access to the bus system. Students would not have to buy bus passes or pay cash fares to ride the bus, but fees would likely go up to cover the costs. Without accounting for these fluctuating revenue sources, Kaiser said the budget would be more predictable and shortfalls as large as this year would not be a problem. Kaiser said many bus systems around the country were becoming universal access systems.

“I can’t find another bus system like ours,” Davis said.

Kaiser said a bus system in Ames, Iowa, which integrates Iowa State’s bus system with the city’s transit, had gone to universal access and that the director said it was the best thing they had ever done. He said the system was more efficient and provided more rides.

The University will enter into a similar contract with Lawrence’s transit system on January 1, 2009.

— Edited by Daniel Reyes