State Auditor Shad White issued the following statement.
State agencies should consider how many miles they plan to put on a vehicle and how often they will use the vehicle before buying it, according to a new report from State Auditor Shad White’s office. Mississippi state agencies and other government offices own thousands of vehicles purchased with taxpayer dollars, from law enforcement and fire rescue to the Department of Transportation. The new report takes a deep dive into vehicle spending and makes recommendations to government purchasing officers to save taxpayers money.
“From the biggest cases—like the welfare scandal, where we wrote nearly 200 pages of audit findings telling you where the money went—to studies of smaller purchases, like state government purchases of cell phones or cars, we're committed to uncovering as much waste as possible and helping government operate efficiently,” said State Auditor Shad White.
White’s report aims to help state or local governments make smarter decisions on when to buy, rent, or use personal vehicles.
“This report was intended to help government offices, but if you’re running a small business and you purchase vehicles, this should help you decide whether to buy or rent, too,” added White.
40 comments:
Trip to Ft. Worth overnight, along I-20. Texas has a Highway Patrolman about every 5 miles, maybe 10. They are earning they’re paycheck and keeping the traffic alert.
Why do we pay for cars for politicians? They should be able to pay for their own transportation. We have already given them a license to steal from the people.
Shad needs to get a life!
I'm grateful to Shad.
Having worked with the legislature and several agencies, the knowledge of even basic math. Indeed, it was stunning how so many regularly duped by lobbyists who quoted stats that should have been obviously bogus or actually was for something unrelated.
Reading comprehension is a problem as well as not reading the report before commenting.
But, look our state taxes dollars have gone to friends and relatives and paid more than the value received for a LONG time and yet, it's FEDERAL dollars that keep us in roads and waters that you all complain about!
#1, that chart only has sedans. My state agency never had sedans.
#2, vehicles purchased with taxpayer dollars should never have the name of any public official, ESPECIALLY an elected public official, on them.
Awesome stuff. "Bureaucracy" at its best. Go, Shad!
Jackson itself has too many vehicles and the employees use them to run errands and take them outside of city limits all the time.
Just yesterday I saw a Jackson FD vehicle pull up at my gym and the guy driving it came inside and worked out.
Why are Jackson vehicles leaving city limits for personal reasons?
If I had it do over, I would have gotten me a state job because it is just too good of a deal to pass up:
1) Guaranteed paycheck no matter what.
2) PERS retirement.
3) Very little accountability.
4) Payed time off for damn near anything.
5) Payed holidays.
6) Plenty of time to pursue your pastimes without anybody saying anything.
7) Almost impossible to get fired.
8) Promotions guaranteed unless you're an idiot.
9) Plenty of places within government to jump around if you're inclined to do so.
10) Show up, shut up and your good to go.
11) Plenty of insurance
It's a helluva deal.
Employee: Hey boss, I’ve got a meeting in Greenwood Monday. Can I take the state car?
Boss: No - Shad says you’ve got to rent a car for that trip.
Employee: Ok, I’ll call Enterprise or Hertz and make a reservation. Then I’ll take more than an hour out of my working day to pick it up…and Boss, I’ll need someone to take me to pick up the car…so that’s 2 folks missing work to pick up the car. Then, when I return I’ll need another hour to fill up with gas and return it and get a ride back to work. Boss, are you sure this is a good idea?
Boss: Shad said so…so yes.
@3:31 gets it. This scenario is spot on.
Someone should audit the auditor regarding vehicles.
When he speaks to various groups on issues unrelated to the auditor's office, is he taking his personal car, driving a state car, or renting a car from Hertz?
11:50 must prefer those state auditors that won’t do their jobs, keeping their oily palms in their pockets while looking the other way.
Lots of highway work going on with the influx of federal dollars.
Slow down to 60. And count the number of white pickups with the DOT logo. In a twelve mile stretch of construction activity and cones and earth moving equipment, you will count at least twenty of those pickups with one person on board, usually a twenty seven year old with an engineering degree from MSU.
He is getting obnoxious
Where can I rent a car for 25 cents a mile?
@3:01 - Well, you would have never been able to get a job in my state office because we only hired folks who can write.
Ask Shad how many black Tahoes does it take to get the state officials to the Neshoba County Fair for the 10-20 minute speeches they have to give ?
I'm self-employed and I have never used Hertz/Avis. So many choices for so much less cost.
It takes me about 10-15 minutes to find a cheap rate and make a reservation.
I wonder if Shad has a state owned car? If so, I wonder if he gets to take it home at night? Because you never know, he might get called out in the middle of the night for some accounting emergency.
3:44 PM & 3:31 PM - Except for the part in the rules that prohibit using a rental from the state contract if reimbursing the employee for mileage is cheaper. However, both the mid-size and the full-size rentals are less than $40/day. Footnote 3 links the rules and rates. By the way the state got Hertz to agree to some very good rates. $59/day for a mini-van is a great rate. Also, when I worked we had a contract to rent cars and when we had to rent one, they would bring the car to the office if we gave them a day or two notice. Commercial operations of all kinds love the steady income of government contracts and will kiss an agency's behind to make sure there are no complaints about service.
But, just for fun, let's do the math for a hypothetical situation or two.
Southaven is 200 miles one way which would be $262 for reimbursing an employee for mileage on a round trip no matter how many days the trip lasts, but a rental would be $36.75/day plus about $60/trip in gas to refill. A Monday thru Friday would be close ($243.75), but the rental is still cheaper. For a 4 day trip its not even close that the rental is cheaper, so the agency would have to ask for a waiver and get it approved.
On the other hand, some quick math indicates a 90 mile one way trip, when computing for a round trip, personal vehicle reimbursement would be $117.90. A two day rental cost would be $73.50 and a 3 day would be $110.25, with both having an approximate $30/trip gas refill. Reimbursement is the winner for a 3 day trip, but the rental wins a 2 day trip scenario.
Now, that is what I call fun.
Do you think it is too much to ask that agencies take the time to figure out which way is cheaper? I want state agencies to squeeze pennies until they bleed and commenters on JJ acting like its a ridiculous proposition that agencies even attempt to spend our money efficiently. Are there no republicans that hang out on JJ any longer? RINOs as far as the eye can see.
The short answer to the title question is:
YES.
3:31 is spot on. Shad should review the state travel policies on use of personal, vs. state, vs. rental cars. Frustrating inefficiency.
Great report Shad. Sounds like a lot of sour grapes on here wishing they had access to State vehicles or Agency cars with no accountability.
I agree no one's name should go on a vehicle. It's a State vehicle. The State & Agency logo are all that's needed (& possible ID#).
Shad has, I see, raised the ire of the State-employed labor lobby.
@3:31 pm,
Employee: Hey boss, I’ve got a meeting in Greenwood Monday. Can I take the state car?
Boss: No. You can Zoom it.
If the state wanted to lean out its fleet, just park the excess vehicles in Jackson. They gone.
I appreciate the generosity of taxpayers and my employer (state agency) for allowing me to have an assigned state SUV which I use to commute to work downtown from my home in Lake Caroline.
"Shad has, I see, raised the ire of the State-employed labor lobby. October 22, 2023 at 8:38 AM"
I'm sure you can do it, but just for fun state something that points to a "state-employed labor lobby".
Why does the state have so many law enforcement agencies in different departments. Like MWFP having LEOs, DPS having the Highway Patrol, MDOT having police to pull over big rigs, etc. Why not combine all these state LEOs into 1 agency and they can all share police cars?
Shad is a politician. Nothing more and nothing less. He knows how to push all the right buttons for stupid republican sheep like most of the posters on this blog.
Do the state employees who drive cars home pay income tax on the perk? Only police and fire are exempted by tax law.
October 22, 2023 at 12:25 PM, Mr. White is also good at setting the ass of liberals on fire. Do you need an extinguisher?
To the smart ass at 9:01, while you’re living at Lake Caroline with Teddy, Jr., the rest of us are paying your salary and as 3:01 eluded, you aren’t worth spit on the ground. But, you have a job at our expense while the rest of us hackers have to live with a car payment. And that’s part of the reason you can live at Caroline is you don’t have a car payment, paid insurance and many other perks. GFY.
Lots of Jackson police live in Madison County and take their vehicles home every night.
Some elected officials in Madison County drive Tahoes. Not need, but such a nice ride.
There is also the fact that most of the state employees make bunk. Giving them an f-150 with 225k miles is not that big of a deal.
“From the biggest cases—like the welfare scandal, where we wrote nearly 200 pages of audit findings telling you where the money went
Auditor Shad still seems real proud of that 200 page report his office issued about the TANF scandal.
Can someone remind me how many times Phil Bryant's name appeared in those 200 pages?
Or was the former deputy sheriff not mentioned much in Shad's 200 page report because he was a double nought whistleblower?
9:01 Are you sure you know where you live? It's called "Caroline" not "Lake Caroline"
For actual state employees if you want to or need to travel somewhere, the DFA has developed the "travel optimizer system", which requires SIGNIFICANT paperwork and MULTIPLE signatures. It is not unheard of at all for someone to spend half a day getting things together to go to hattiesburg....... The question becomes "rent a car, or get milage taking your own".
This is what is is like for a boots on the ground state employee, daily. If you work for an agency that has a vehicle fleet, these are managed by some generally unpleasant people, and again, if you take one out, you have to justify why, what, and who.
I have worked for a few agencies over the years and I can assure you that NOT ONE SINGLE PERSON who ever dealt with traveling with the state thought there were "too many vehicles".
This is absolute bureaucratic garbage.
Good job, Shad! The last company that I worked for had a similar chart for deciding whether it was cheaper for the company (and our clients) if we used a POV or a rental. The policy was pushed down by the CFO. It makes perfect sense that the auditor's office do this sort of analysis and push it down to the other state agencies. Now, if the heads of these agencies will just use the damn chart and try to make sure that our tax dollars are spent wisely...
October 22, 2023 at 8:32 PM, I don't know what Phil Bryant did to you, but if you would like to share, I would like to hear. You never miss a chance to drag up Phil Bryant.
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