Parking Services paying off road bonds |
Katie Bennett |
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Parking Services did not generate any nest egg this year. Director of Administrative Services Robert Vanzo said, "Parking Services did not have a surplus at all." He said people are confused by the word surplus. "Our revenue did exceed our expenditures, but any excess money was used to pay back our revenue bonds." Parking Services has $9 million in outstanding revenue bonds. "The bonds were brought by investors to support construction and renovation," Vanzo said. Student Senator Alyssa Gonterman said the rumor of a surplus was a common misunderstanding on campus. "It needs to be explained to the students that Parking Services does not have a lot of money," she said. According to Vanzo, Parking Services does not receive any state funding. "All funding comes from you and me and that money pays for everything," he said. Parking Services relies on money from parking decal sales, parking fines, meter money and the visitor parking Lot B to pay all overhead costs including its employees' salaries and repayment of the revenue bonds. Vanzo said the $9 million of revenue bonds greatly affected Parking Services' officials' decision to increase parking ticket fines in fall 2001. "The rates had not been raised since the 1970s or '80s except for some gradual increases in the '90s ... and we needed more of a dramatic increase in order to pay back the bonds," Vanzo said. According to Vanzo, the revenue bonds were used to fund a project consisting of two years' worth of renovations which was completed three years ago. "The campus community had been complaining to Parking Services about the condition of the parking lots, so we had to renovate them," he said. Every parking lot on campus was resurfaced with the exception of the Student Fitness Center parking lot. "A couple of the lots had to be restructured because they had deteriorated so badly and if we had waited any longer, we would have had to rebuild a few lots which would have been very expensive," Vanzo said. "We also enhanced the lighting in the lots and roadways," Vanzo said. Lighting was added to or upgraded on University Drive, Circle Drive and Cougar Lake Road. A portion of the revenue bond money went toward upgrading the emergency phone system on campus and adding new signs to the parking lots. In addition to repaying the revenue bonds, Parking Services will also use the money generated by the increase of parking ticket fines to help cover the cost of maintenance to the parking lots. The goal is to keep the lots in good condition to avoid another massive renovation. According to Vanzo, it is important that the increase generates the amount of money that Parking Services is planning on. "Otherwise," he said, "we will be forced to increase the fines more." Parking Services does not anticipate another fee increase and the revenue bonds are scheduled to be paid in full after 2014. | |