May 12, 2009 4:51 pm US/Pacific
On The Money: Auto Perks
Reporting
Sam Shane
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ―
It's a quickly vanishing business perk – the company car. But it's not vanishing for the California Legislature. In fact, CBS13 has learned that the state paid more than $1.5 million for new cars for your legislators in 2007. And this year, the numbers aren't much different.
In 2007, the State of California spent more than $90 million on cars alone. And among the thousands of new state vehicles were cars for assembly members and senators.
The legislators get to pick their own cars, and taxpayers are helping foot the bill.
This year, they picked a wide range of vehicles, everything from $30,000 hybrids to $40,000 Cadillacs.
Here's how it works. The Legislator picks their car, then the Department of General Services purchases it, leasing the car back to the lawmaker, with the choice of either a two or four year lease.
And the lawmakers get free gasoline and maintenance for those cars, regardless if it's a Mazda or a Mercedes, paid for by tax dollars.
"We think from the taxpayer perspective it would be better if there were a simple fleet sale of one type of vehicle to save costs," says Jon Coupal.
Jon Coupal is the President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association in Sacramento. He wonders if the legislative cars are even necessary.
"We've never seen any studies to see if it would be cheaper to have those people simply claim mileage reimbursement on state business for the miles that they drive their own personal vehicle," says Coupal.
A representative from the Senate Rules Committee wouldn't go on-camera, saying simply that the state auctions off the vehicles when a term ends, getting a little money back. Critics like Coupal hope they will look for alternatives to the vehicle perk, but are not hopeful.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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