On top of budget-breaking $4.50 per gallon gas prices, taxpayers
coughed up more than $700,000 to keep city and school vehicles
running last year.
On top of budget-breaking $4.50 per gallon gas prices, taxpayers coughed up more than $700,000 to keep city and school vehicles running last year.
Like any other driver, Gilroy Unified School District bus driver Rebecca Scheel swiped a card, uncapped her gas tank and began filling the bus’ massive 100-gallon tank Friday afternoon. Unlike other drivers, she didn’t foot the staggering bill – taxpayers did, she pointed out. At $5.12 per gallon at the pump, diesel fuel is causing the school district to see some significantly larger gas bills, according to district documents for the 06/07 fiscal year compared to the 07/08 fiscal year, which ended June 30.
GUSD spent $283,164 on fuel in the 06/07 fiscal year and an estimated $426,770 last fiscal year, a 51 percent increase, according to district documents. The district originally budgeted $405,000 for fuel last fiscal year, $21,770 less than the current estimate. The district has budgeted $425,000 for fuel in the 08/09 fiscal year, which began July 1, a number that is obviously subject to change, said Keiko Mizuno, GUSD director of business services.
“It’s breaking my budget,” Mizuno said. At the beginning of last year, she was paying bills for $3 per gallon of diesel. Her June gas bill quoted $4.71 per gallon.
To top off her tank, Scheel added 30 gallons of diesel with a price tag of $155.53. Filling an empty tank would cost a hefty $512. Each of the 43 busses in the district’s fleet gets about seven miles to the gallon, Mizuno said. That’s more than $500 for only 700 miles traveled.
In addition to the $426,770 budgeted toward fuel to keep the district’s fleet moving, management level staff received a total of $87,300 in travel allowance stipends, according to the district’s budget, for travel between schools, conferences and workshops. Employees who do not receive an annual stipend are reimbursed 58.5 cents per mile, a standard reimbursement rate established by the Internal Revenue Service effective July 1.
Meanwhile, the city spent $295,158 on fuel last fiscal year and budgeted $304,013 for the 08/09 fiscal year, according to the city’s budget. Increasing gas prices were balanced with fewer places to go, Co-Finance Director Christina Turner explained. For example, city inspectors won’t have as many homes to inspect this year.
Thousands of dollars fell under categories labeled “professional support” which encompass a multitude of expenditures, from conferences and seminars to gas reimbursement, said Barbara Voss, assistant finance director with the city.
“A whole gamut of things fall under professional support,” she said. “There’s no way to break that (mileage costs) out.”
However, the mileage component of the professional support budget is minuscule in comparison to the overall number, she said.
The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority spent $13,894,000 last fiscal year and adopted a $13,913,000 fuel budget for this fiscal year.
“These numbers were presented to the board at the same time (in April 2007),” said Linh Hoang, public relations supervisor with VTA. “Since then, we’ve encountered a lot of the high fuel costs that every other agency has encountered. VTA is reassessing its gas and fuel costs and managing discrepancies with savings from other parts of VTA’s operating budget.”
The VTA is working to mitigate skyrocketing fuel costs by replacing high-emission vehicles with hybrids through its sustainability program, Hoang said.
Like VTA, GUSD has been looking for ways to “think outside the box,” Mizuno said. The transportation budget is always underfunded, she said. “The state never pays enough money so the general fund has to kick in extra support,” she said.
Basically, the general fund, which pays teacher salaries and funds programs, has to make up for the transportation deficit so the district has to look for other sources of revenue to keep transportation’s encroachment on the general fund at bay. This summer, GUSD school busses aren’t sitting in the bus yard, baking in the sun. Contracted out to Bay Area YMCAs, GUSD busses are bringing outside revenue into the district to relieve the transportation fund’s encroachment on the general fund. The general fund contributed $885,927 toward transportation last fiscal year, a number that was more than double the previous year’s contribution. However, the general fund contribution will be reduced $55,531 this fiscal year thanks to the district’s summer contracts.
“Since we started aggressively attracting outside customers, the general fund support has been reduced somewhat,” Mizuno said. “So I guess we’re doing something right.”
Reporter Chris Bone contributed to this story.
By the numbers
– 43 buses in the school district
– 7 mpg average for buses
– $500 to drive 700 miles
– $500 to fill one tank
