Governor Brown Orders Car Cuts
By Mike Luery
Governor Jerry Brown today ordered all state agencies to immediately put the brakes on buying new cars.
The Governor's Executive Order means immediate savings for taxpayers. In a one on one interview with On The Money's Mike Luery, Governor Brown said that with California $25 billion in the red, the state simply cannot afford to purchase new cars.
California has an estimated 11,000 passenger cars and the governor wants to cut that in half – first by banning the purchase of any new cars that are not essential to state business. The governor's order also cracks down on government workers who use their state vehicles to commute back and forth from home. California has issued 4,500 home storage permits – but that's about the change, as the governor told me today in his office.
I asked the governor, "Any sense as to how much money we might save by this Executive Order?"
Governor Brown responded, "You know, it's hard to say. We're going to save millions of dollars and I want to keep on going. I want to create not only the savings by reducing car use, but I want people to get the sense that this property belongs to the people. And we have to win public trust."
"Confidence in government is pretty low," the Governor told CBS 13. "My goal is to realign the government officials and the people so we're working together as a team as partners," Brown added.
"And is part of the goal here to show the people that you're making those hard cuts, making those significant savings so that when it comes to having a ballot measure in June you can show you've made all those significant cuts?" I asked the Governor.
"That's one way to put it," Brown responded. "I also think it's important for people who work in state government to be aware that we're in a period of stringency, of almost a type of austerity and taking away cars is a way to send the message out," Governor Brown added.
State agencies must now scrutinize the use of every vehicle they own – and then come up with a plan to sell or transfer non-essential ones within 120 days. Altogether, California's state fleet has more than 50,000 vehicles, including aircraft, boats and emergency response equipment. The state fleet has a replacement value of more than $1.5 billion and uses more than $90 million in fuel each years, according to the governor's Executive Order.
I also asked the governor about his upcoming State of the State speech. He said only to tune in Monday at 5 p.m. Brown's press office says the governor has cut all his speechwriters and is writing the speech himself this weekend.
