The state Budget and Control Board approved a study Tuesday that will examine the use of all 15,052 state-owned vehicles, except school buses.

Results of the study, expected to cost about $250,000, will not be ready until sometime during the upcoming legislative session, long after drafters have begun work on the 2005-2006 budget.

It is an imperfect scenario, but one state officials said they're willing to accept.

"A lot of us felt the idea was good," said board member and House Ways and Means Chairman Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston.

"But it's better that we wait a while and get it right."

A similar study, approved by the Legislature last session, is due in early January.

The problem, however, is that study stops short of examining the entire fleet, collecting information only on the roughly 4,900 passenger vehicles in the fleet.

Gov. Mark Sanford called for the latest study, which is only fitting since the idea of selling off the fleet originated with him.

The General Assembly approved the plan last session, but stipulated that a study be done.

Sanford felt the original study stopped short of its goal and others agreed.

Harrell, the budget's chief architect, said he hopes to use information from the latest study to craft the budget.

Harrell said he would begin work on the 2005-06 budget in December.

"But we'll just have to wait and see when we get it," he said.

Sanford first announced his plan to sell more than 6,000 state-owned vehicles last December, a move he said would save the state $33.7 million in 2004-05 and $8.5 million annually thereafter.

The state fleet provides the vehicles for all state agencies.

Also on Tuesday the board approved going ahead with a study weighing selling off state-owned land, another Sanford idea.

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