Gary Schools Owe $2.6 Million To Keep Bus Services Running
Kyle Stokes / StateImpact Indiana
The Gary Community School Corporation owes its busing company more than $2 million to keep services running. The company gave the school district until Nov. 10 to provide payment.
Bus service for Gary students could be discontinued in November if the district doesn’t pay its transportation company $2.6 million for services they’ve already delivered.
The Illinois Central Bus Company, the bus company that provides transportation for Gary Schools, sent a letter to Gary Superintendent Cheryl Pruitt saying the district has until Nov. 10 to provide payment or evidence of a payment plan if they want bus service to continue.
In the letter, the company explains its reasoning for the deadline:
The significant arrears and lack of clarity with respect to your ability to pay for already-delivered services has put ICSB in an untenable position. As a result, our company cannot continue to provide services without payment or concrete evidence of payments to come. At a rate of $150,000 per week, each month that passes adds $600,000 to the amount in arrears. This situation jeopardizes the viability of our company and the jobs of 100 drivers and employees.
Michelle L. Quinn of the Post-Tribune reports the reason for the back payments is due the inability to raise enough taxes in Gary:
Between 2010 and 2014, the school corporation has collected less than half of its gross levy, Superintendent Cheryl Pruitt said in a news release Friday. As such, the district has lost $34.5 million, and that lost revenue is due to the property-tax circuit breaker and uncollected property taxes in the city.
From 2010 and 2014, Pruitt said GCSC paid $34,276,060 for bus transportation, with the $10,495,054 difference coming out the school budget’s general fund each year.
For the 2015 school year, GCSC’s transportation levy is $12 million; it’ll receive just over $5 million, or 42 percent, from collected property taxes.
Pruitt and school board members are holding a press conference today to discuss the transportation debt.
