Lawrence committee takes no action on request to increase funding for K-10 Connector route

photo by: Mike Yoder

In this file photo from November 2008, students board a K-10 Connector bus at the KU Park and Ride lot off of Clinton Parkway.

Despite a request from Johnson County officials for the City of Lawrence to increase its financial support of the K-10 Connector bus service, funding is likely to remain flat next year.

In a letter to City Manager Tom Markus last month, Johnson County officials asked Lawrence to pay $327,800 for K-10 Connector service in 2017 — amounting to a 178 percent increase over what’s being paid this year. Some city leaders don’t think Lawrence should be responsible for so much of the cost.

“They’re not running that route for us — we didn’t ask them to provide that route,” said Lawrence Transit System Director Robert Nugent. “I’ve been in this business for almost 30 years, and I’ve never funded somebody else’s service.”

The current budget recommendation shows Lawrence paying $120,000 in 2017. Nugent spoke to members of the Lawrence Public Transit Advisory Committee on Tuesday. Though the committee did not have enough members present for a vote, it could ultimately propose to pay more or less toward the K-10 Connector in the future.

The route runs along Kansas Highway 10 and takes riders between Kansas University, Johnson County Community College and KU’s Edwards Campus. The letter to Markus, signed by Deputy Johnson County Manager Penny Postoak Ferguson, states that the county’s Board of Commissioners “would likely need to revisit and reassess its support of the route if funding from the city of Lawrence were to remain flat.”

In 2012, Johnson County leaders, facing a budget reduction for the K-10 Connector, asked Lawrence to help support the service. The letter states a funding agreement was “discussed and approved in concept” with former City Manager David Corliss. The agreement was for $120,000 in 2014, $200,000 in 2015 and $327,800 in 2016 and beyond.

Though Nugent said that discussion did take place, he noted that since the city sets its budget annually, agreeing to the three-year plan would not have been possible.

“It sounds like we struck this deal for three years,” Nugent said. “That’s not true; that’s not what happened. That’s not what we talked about that day. It was about if we were going to get up to a higher number, that’s how it’d have to be accomplished.”

Nugent told the committee that Johnson County officials say that 60 percent of ridership on the route is people going from Douglas County to Johnson County. Though Nugent said that the route has value to Lawrence, he doesn’t think that the city should be paying what would amount to roughly one-third of the costs, which he estimated to be between $900,000 and $1 million.

“There is a value to that service, but what is that value?” Nugent asked the committee. “Is it $120,000? Is it $300,000? What is it?”

The committee is not scheduled to meet again before the city passes its budget for the upcoming year. The Lawrence City Commission met Tuesday afternoon for public work sessions on the city manager’s recommended 2017 budget, and will approve a final budget in August.