Legislature to study state vehicles

Philly.com is reporting today that the senate has submitted a bill to being a study of the use of state vehicles:

The New Jersey Senate's state government committee yesterday advanced a measure to study how to reduce the roughly 7,000 vehicles used for state business.

During the next five fiscal years, supporters say, the state could save an estimated $28 million. That would be offset by money the state spends on mileage reimbursements for employees who use their personal vehicles instead. There is no estimate on how much the reimbursements would total, according to the bill.

It is not clear whether the savings estimates are too high or grossly underestimate the costs of the states vehicle fleet. What is clear is that our state has WAY too many state owned vehicles sitting in people's driveways at night. And judging from the number of state vehicles converging on Trenton every day from every direction, one suspects that for many these vehicles are perks, not requirements of their job.

Read the entire article here.

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State Government Vehicles Gone Wild! Report Offenders Here!

I have blogged in the past about the habit of this state to distribute vehicles to state workers like candy at Halloween. Except, at least I get to decide whether or not I want to pay for and distribute the candy myself. In this case, the state takes money from us and gives out autos for no apparent reason to people in roles that clearly do not require them.

For the record, if you work in a public safety role and are on call 24 hours a day, you deserve and should have a state vehicle. If you are driving to work to say, the state NJDEP, you shouldn't have a state paid for vehicle.

Tonight, on the way home I was passed by a state vehicle on route 206 at at least 70 miles per hour. The vehicle was weaving in and out of traffic and clearly had no state purpose. That vehicle's license plate number was SG28164. Watch out for this person.

Have you seen a state vehicle that you question why the driver is even provided this perk? Send in the license plate and we will make it public. We are paying for it so why not advertise it.

Wonder if a car is a state or state paid for vehicle? Follow this link to get beyond the "SG" obvious offender.

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