The North Central Regional Transit District will enjoy more money in the bank after the Board OK’d the Fiscal Year 2015 budget.
With a 10-0 vote during a meeting Friday morning, the budget was approved.
District Finance Director Glenda Aragon said the Board had to approve the budget by June 30.
According to the finalized budget document, the District’s total revenue for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, equals $9.76 million, which is about $130,000 more than Fiscal Year 2014’s overall revenue of $9.63 million.
Aragon said the increase in next fiscal year’s budget is due primarily to the more federal funding acquired by the District. She said the increase in funding results from a variety of factors, such as the size of the District’s transportation coverage and how it spent allocated money this fiscal year.
The District spent 99 percent of federal funding it received this fiscal year, which equals $1.44 million, Aragon said.
“They look and see where our need is at with regard to have we spent the money we’ve received from the prior year to the current year,” she said. “Like I mentioned, we’ve spent as much as we possibly have in that.”
According to the budget document, this fiscal year, the district received $496,501 in administration funding, $815,559 in operating funding and $127,494 in federal capital outlay dollars. These compose this fiscal year’s federal revenue for the District.
For the next fiscal year, the District obtained $516,361 in administration funding, which is about a $20,000 increase from this fiscal year. It also received $880,805 in operating funding, which Aragon said is used for the bus system. This is about a $65,000 increase from this fiscal year.
Federal capital outlay revenue experienced the largest hike, as funds are up by about $167,000 from last fiscal yea’rs $127,494. Aragon said the District originally requested $1.1 million in capital outlay funds.
In total, the District received $1.69 million in federal funding for the next fiscal year, the budget document states.
Aragon said the District received more federal funding with the help of its increasing ridership.
District Public Information Officer Jim Nagle said that although the District will not have its end-of-the-year report on ridership until mid-July, ridership is expected to increase by 8 percent this fiscal year.
He said the national average for the increase in public transportation ridership in the United States is 3 percent.
Nagle said the District’s ridership has been constantly increasing since fiscal year 2009.
“I think it’s just great awareness,” he said. “People are beginning to learn to see the benefits of public transportation. It’s difficult in New Mexico because people are still way too dependent on their cars. The more we could try to help people understand the benefits of public transportation, it’s going to benefit everyone.”
According to the District’s performance measures document, the District had a ridership of 10,782 people in April 2009. The number constantly increased and reached 19,804 in April 2013, the document states.
Besides federal funding, the District will operate with $6.8 million in revenue from gross receipts tax next fiscal year. This is about a $50,000 increase from this year’s $6.75 million.
The District will also receive a 5304 federal grant of $60,000, a decrease from last year’s $151,250, and a Transportation Alternatives Program funding of $215,736, the same from this year.
State capital outlay revenue will increase from this year’s $170,000 to next fiscal year’s $175,000, and $400,000 from Los Alamos County’s annual contribution.
Aragon said the District’s expenditure line items will stay the same for next fiscal year.
The District will allot $2.72 million for employees’ salaries and benefits next fiscal year, about the same amount that it had for this fiscal year.
On the other hand, operating expenses will be up to $5.9 million, an $180,000 increase from this fiscal year.
This is brought about by the increase in the District’s non-Regional Transit District expenses with the New Mexico Rail Runner, with Los Alamos County and with the City of Santa Fe, totaling about $172,000.
Telephone expenses will also increase by $2,000 to $10,172 and information technology hardware and software support will increase by $5,000 to $25,700.
The increase will happen despite operating expenditure line item cuts, including an $85,000 cut in contractual services costs, a $15,000 cut in fuel expenses, a $7,000 cut in office supplies and a $5,000 cut in vehicle painting.
Capital outlay expenses will decrease by $41,000, as the District slashed bus shelter expenditures from this year’s $340,494 to next fiscal year’s $60,000.
The district will work on this fiscal year’s final financial report throughout the summer until September, Aragon said.