The Pace board of directors is reviewing a preliminary version of its $115.2 million budget for 1999.
The proposed budget, presented to the board Wednesday, would be a 2.6 percent increase, or $3 million more, than 1998’s budget.
The spending package would include a capital budget of $36.1 million, $28.7 of which would go to buy new buses and vans.
Pace officials project a fare-recovery ratio–percentage of costs covered by fares–of 36.3 percent for 1998, and a ridership of roughly 39 million, up from 37.9 million in 1997. For 1999 they forecast 39.7 million. Ridership is a measurement of every time someone gets on a bus. The bus agency has until September to submit its final proposed budget to the Regional Transportation Authority, which at that time will set a new fare-recovery ratio mark for Pace.