A WAVE transportation bus travels along Carolina Beach Road in 2011. StarNews file photo.
NOTE: This question was originally submitted and answered in 2010 by Pat Gannon. In January 2013, Adam Wagner provided this updated answer:
Wave Transit’s operating budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2013, is $7.96 million. Since the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2010, the budget has risen by about $700,000.
Several different sources fund Wave, including local governments, passenger fares and state and national transportation agencies. Passenger fares total $993,000, or about 12% of the funding, according to Wave’s budget.
The Federal Transit Administration is paying about $3.09 million, or about 38.8 percent of the budget. That’s up from about 33 percent in 2010-11.
The N.C. Department of Transportation is paying about $1 million. New Hanover County and agencies such as its Department of Aging and Department of Social Services pay $723,425 for Wave. The City of Wilmington contributes $1.285 million. UNCW pays $745,000 for the Seahawk Shuttle, while Brunswick County and the town of Leland are paying $91,875 for the Brunswick Connector.
Expected costs for FY 2014, according to Wave’s budget, include:
Wages: $3,541,552
Fringe benefits: $1,203,566
Fuel: $1,101,100
Insurance: $589,947
Vehicle maintenance: $529,742
Professional services: $459,600
Tires and tubes: $150,000
Utilities: $94,700
Services: $78,800
Marketing and publishing: $43,400
Office supplies: $35,800
Shop supplies: $12,000
Taxis and licenses: $2,500
Other: $123,111
Date posted: January 2, 2014
User-contributed question by:
Steve Mullen
$7.3 million!!?? You have to be kidding? Why don’t you just say, “Tax payers foot 95% of the bill”…with the exception of UNCW, all those other sources are from taxpayers! How is it that “fringe benefits” account for almost a million dollars!? At $7.3 million dollars, you could buy everybody that rides the bus a car!! This is absurd…
This whole “evironmentally friendly” crap is just that…crap! So you save $300 a month in electricity and you paid how many hundreds of thousands to be environmentally friendly… you’ll never make that back! It’s a BUS STATION!! A $4.5 million BUS STATION!!
Thanks for this information. The WAVE Transit looks like a government jobs program–with 65 percent of the budget going for salaries and benefits.
Just how many employees receive that compensation?
Also, how can we determine actual individual ridership. WAVE claims, I believe, are inflated. Do they count every time somebody gets on a bus? Isn’t it likely that the same people ride regularly and frequently?
I’ve read the Cape Fear Public Transportation Authority “Service Expansion and Long Range Financial Plan,” May 2011. A pie-chart on page 5 shows “charges for Services”: 33.54 percent making up operating revenues. How does that square with your report of 10 percent?
Thanks