Although the Centre Area Transportation Authority (CATA) faces a financial predicament, officials said proposals for the new parking facilities in State College and on campus will not be affected.

Last fiscal year, CATA received $1.7 million from the commonwealth. Eric Bernier, CATA service development manager, said that if state funding remains at the same level, CATA would fall $300,000 short of its projected $7 million operating budget.

Bernier said fares support half of CATA's budget and the other half is a combination of local, state and federal funding.

The funding problems could endanger 5 percent of CATA's services, including Centre Line bus routes, said Elizabeth Goreham, State College Borough Council member.

Goreham added, though, that borough projects including the Beaver Avenue parking garage and a West Campus parking garage would not be affected.

Parking deck construction is progressing on the corner of Fraser Street and Beaver Avenue, and a parking garage adjacent to White Course Apartments is being planned as part of west campus development.

Bernier said the construction of the Beaver Avenue parking deck and west campus parking garage would not add to CATA's financial problems because parking costs could be adjusted accordingly.

"CATA supports moving parking out of the core to the periphery of campus," he said.

"We run into problems if they begin to create more parking and making it available to the public very cheap," he added.

Penn State Director of Transportation Teresa Davis said the university is negotiating with CATA for next academic year's contract to decide the university's pre-payment to the Loop and Link services, which are partially funded by students' tuition money.

Davis said that the P Route, which provides service to Innovation Park, could be in jeopardy because it is part of the Centre Line and not partially funded by the university.

Bernier said CATA considers the segment of the P Route connecting the campus core to Innovation Park a fifth Loop and Link route, but that the remainder of the route could be subject to cuts because it is considered part of the Centre Line service, which continues into Bellefonte.

Davis said the proposed west campus parking garage would compensate for parking lost to a planned engineering building being constructed in Red A Lot, west of Atherton Street.

State College Mayor Bill Welch said he had not heard concern about the Beaver Avenue parking deck affecting CATA.

Bernier said "stagnant" state funding had not affected CATA because it had been using its surplus money from past years to balance a rise in gas prices as well as employee healthcare costs.

He added that CATA may consider other options within the borough if state funds are not allocated, including asking other municipalities for increased funding or raising bus fares as a "last resort."

Councilwoman Cathy Dauler said the municipalities should re-evaluate the CATA funding amount before next year's budget is finalized.

"The municipalities probably need to look at how much they're funding for a great service," she said.

Davis said CATA also asked the university for increased funding.

"Centre Line has a large area and we [the university] pay a lot more money than all the municipalities combined," she said.