BATON ROUGE (AP) — Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration intends to sell 709 state vehicles at auction early next year as a cost-cutting move.
Ruth Johnson, deputy commissioner of administration, said Thursday the vehicles aren't being used enough to justify the continued maintenance costs.
In a statement, the governor's Division of Administration estimated the sales could bring in $700,000 to $1.4 million for a state struggling with repeated budget shortfalls.
The Jindal administration says of the 11,000 vehicles across state agencies, more than 1,400 were driven less than 15,000 miles over the last year. The administration says it's cheaper to pay employees for travel than to pay maintenance for those vehicles, so half of them will be sold.
Administration officials notified the agencies this week, giving them two weeks to turn over the vehicles.
