in Slashing Bloated Personal Vehicle Budget

ANNAPOLIS (May 16, 2007) – Governor Martin O’Malley announced Wednesday that he is cutting the size of the Governor’s Office vehicle fleet in half, and eliminating all take-home cars for members of his staff. Governor O’Malley also issued a directive that all state agencies conduct similar audits to reduce the size of their vehicle fleet.

The cost-cutting measure follows Governor O’Malley’s order last week to Cabinet Secretaries to cut spending by $200 million. Today’s directive asks state agencies to:

• Identify and reduce the number of underutilized vehicles;
• Scrutinize the need for take home cars, and;
• Use flexible motor pools to meet their needs instead of assigning vehicles to individuals as a perk.

“Across Maryland government, we have to close the State’s deficit in a way that is fiscally responsible, provides a long-term solution to the problem, and is fair to middle class families,” said Governor O’Malley. “Today, beginning with the Governor’s Office, we are proving that cost-savings are possible within state government and that we can find them.”

Currently, the Governor’s Office has 24 cars assigned to it, but today, Governor O’Malley reduced that to just 12 cars – a 50% reduction in the size of the Governor’s Office vehicle fleet.

In addition, 9 staff members have take-home cars; under this new reorganization, none of the Governor’s staff will have take-home cars. In addition to the Governor’s Executive Office, this action affects the Secretary of State’s office, the Maryland Energy Administration, and the Governor’s Offices of Children, Community Initiatives, Minority Affairs, and Crime Control and Prevention.

Of the cars present today, some will be sold on the open market, to end recurring costs for the state and raise one-time revenues. Others cars will be reallocated to other state departments who are reconsidering the best way to allocate motor fleets. Two unmarked police cars that were used by senior staffers in the prior administration have been returned to the Maryland Transit Administration Police.

Statewide, Maryland has a motor pool of approximately 9,000 cars. In FY 2007, it cost Maryland taxpayers $55 million to maintain this fleet.

Next year, Maryland faces a $1.4 billion structural deficit. Last week, Governor O’Malley and Lt. Governor Brown directed Maryland’s Cabinet Secretaries to find $200 million in savings. Maryland has already taken significant steps toward closing this deficit, including

• The closure of the House of Corrections at Jessup will save millions of dollars annually.

• The Department of Natural Resources reduced the number of Assistant Secretaries from five to three, which creates a ripple effect of savings with reduced support staff.

• The Departments of Juvenile Services and Public Safety & Correctional Services have reduced overtime during the first months of participation in StateStat.