Despite efforts to cut costs, a $40,000 deficit is expected for the Student Association Mass Transit Board.

SA Mass Transit Adviser David Pack said the board tried to reduce the deficit without making noticeable service cuts.

The mass transit board requested a bus fee increase from $58.08 to $71.52 to erase the nearly $48,000 deficit and offset rising costs in Fiscal Year 1991.

The increase would raise an additional $322,560.

Busing Graduate Assistant Cyro Gazola said combining the 7 and 9 routes could save $9,000.

Gazola said the transit board also reduced Route 4 service from every 15 to every 20 minutes, saving about $20,000 already reflected in the deficit figure.

“We tried to get some savings without lowering the quality of the service we offer to students,” Gazola said.

Although the bus fee proposal showed expansion of the adapted transportation system for the disabled and the Late Nite Ride Service, Gazola said the increase was small and made before the deficit discovery.

“What is a $3,000 expansion compared to $40,000 more,” Gazola said, adding extra services like the ride service make up only 2 percent of the board’s budget.

Gazola said the board was forced to request the 23 percent increase to catch up financially from a reserve loss in FY86 through FY88, when the bus fee was frozen at $2.33 per credit hour. Students are only charged for 12 hours.

“If that 23 percent had been spread out over three years, things would have been different,” Gazola said, adding annual $50,000 contractual increases make fee hikes inevitable.

Although a new contract and federal regulations for the disabled could push costs up, causing higher fees, the transit board does not want to charge user fees.

“The system would not be able to serve its purpose with fare,” Pack said, adding the student’s high ridership would cost them more than the fee.

However, a 25-cent fare would allow 10 rides per week for a semester at about the same price as the proposed fee.