Gov. Mark Sanford's proposal to sell more than 6,000 state-owned vehicles has prompted predictable jokes about the government getting into the used-car business. But the obvious waste that this plan aims to eliminate is no laughing matter -- and the business of state government needs to take cost-cutting measures like this one to fairly balance its books.
As the governor accurately put it Tuesday at a State Fleet Management parking lot in Columbia: "This is a pretty simple equation. We've got far too many state vehicles in South Carolina. We're proposing to sell as many of them as we can, and we're going to put cash from those sales into health benefits for state employees."
This plan marks a welcome advance in Gov. Sanford's offensive to spend state funds more efficiently. Some of his previous moves, while symbolically beneficial, produced relatively modest savings of taxpayer dollars.
But the governor estimates that selling those 6,000 state vehicles would save $33.7 million in the 2004-05 fiscal year and $8.5 million annually in subsequent years. Under the governor's plan, much of next year's savings will be applied to the employer portion of the State Health Plan.
And under the governor's leadership, a thorough review of all state expenditures is revealing new opportunities to cut the budget without hurting the public. The plan to drastically reduce the number of state vehicles, based in part on the findings of the governor's Commission on Management, Accountability and Performance, addresses a costly imbalance exposed by these statistics: The S.C. government now has 15,052 vehicles -- 38 for every 10,000 citizens, roughly double the rate in North Carolina and nearly triple the rate in Alabama, a state with approximately the same population as South Carolina.
Ways to improve the management of the state's motor vehicle fleet have been periodically recommended by the state's Legislative Audit Council since the late 1970s. But the governor's plan is the most sweeping on record.
As Gov. Sanford put it: "If you want to provide value to the taxpayer, you've got to find out where you are long on resources and short on need -- like we are with respect to state vehicles -- and then find out where we are short on resources and long on need -- like funding health care benefits for the state."
Selling lots of the state's cars will provide that value to the taxpayer. So will consolidating maintenance operations for the vehicles that remain in the state fleet.
Cutting vehicle expenses makes good fiscal sense, especially during the state's continuing budget crisis. The General Assembly should support the governor's efforts to make state government more efficient.
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