So let me get this straight. USF students currently ride fare-free on any local HARTLine buses. USF Parking and Transportation covers the fare at a discounted rate which costs them approximately $180,000 a year.
Now the contract is back on the table, and costs are estimated to increase by $92,196. Okay, it’s been a few years since I’ve taken calculus, but I’m pretty sure that totals an estimated $272,000.
Using 2004 enrollment statistics, USF has 35,081 students enrolled on the Tampa campus. Let’s assume for the sake of argument that all of those students pay for the least expensive Park-n-Ride pass, priced at $35 annually. Note that this isn’t actually the case, since the resident parking lots, priced at $130 annually sold out this year. But again, this is for the sake of argument.
This results in $1,227,835 in revenue from student parking passes alone. So worst case scenario, 22 % of Parking and Transportation’s revenue is devoted to a service used approximately 30,000 times a month. That’s almost a ride for every student every month.
Divide that cheapest fare I talked about before among 12 months, and each USF student is paying at least $2.91 per month. (Again, this is understated) Parking and Transportation pays $0.50 per HARTLine ride. Any way you stack this up, it doesn’t make sense.
It makes less sense when you consider the $362,434 subsidy that USF Parking and Transportation receives from the city every year.
So where does the money go? More people in golf carts handing out citations? I could see how that could get expensive fast. Does anyone know where the real budget is? I’d be interested in seeing it.