Feb 22, 2011
Some California lawmakers have chosen to forego their state fleet vehicles to save money for the struggling state. What has your fleet done to save money?
Elected by angry taxpayers in a year of a massive state deficit, 18 of 31 first-year legislators have decided not to order a new car bankrolled largely by public funds.
The penny pinching, mostly symbolic in closing a $25.4 billion budget gap, echoes the tone set by Brown in turning in his state-issued cell phone and vowing to reduce the state's vehicle fleet for workers.
Freshmen legislators are rejecting state cars at rates far exceeding veteran colleagues: 58 percent of first-year lawmakers are driving their family cars at work, for example, compared with just 13 percent of incumbents.
"If we're going to cut expenses, we've got to start with our own expenses," said Assemblyman Katcho Achadjian, an Arroyo Grande (San Luis Obispo County) Republican who said he drives his personal car about 300 miles from his home to the Capitol each week.
Assemblyman Allan Mansoor, R-Costa Mesa (Orange County), said in a prepared statement that sacrifice is important to restore public trust.
"I did not get elected to the Assembly for a free car, I got elected to fix the state's problems," Mansoor said.
Read the rest of this story at the San Francisco Chronicle.
Photo courtesy of Ed Bierman and re-used under the Creative Commons license.