The San Jose Mercury News reports that California State Assembly members are given up to $500 per month to lease the car of their choice, plus all the gas they can guzzle, unlimited maintenance and free insurance coverage. The really sweet part of the deal: the state covers any damage to the vehicle (and other liabilities) no matter who is behind the wheel. The state paid over $2K to fix a state-funded car being driven to school by an assemblywoman's teen-aged daughter who rear-ended a truck. Even accidents caused while violating traffic codes are covered. When an assemblyman failed to yield and drove his Tahoe into an intersection while talking on his cell phone, the state shelled out almost $12K to cover the damages. The California Senate has different rules– its members are personally liable for damages to their state-owned vehicles if they're being used for personal business or driven by family members.
I guess our dear assembly men lead the nation’s quest for personal responsibility. It reminds me of 18thcentury absolute monarchy….
Is this situation specific to California? I certainly hope so.
Use the link and read the whole Mercury News article. The situation is even worse than you’d think. What a bunch of looting legislators. Hypocritical, too: they’re passionate about cutting “greenhouse gases,” but they get the state to provide them with guzzlers like Buicks, Camaros, Expeditions and Tahoes. (Hey, why not? It’s all free: “Lawmakers, who earn a $113,000 annual salary, receive up to $500 a month to lease a car of their choice. Taxpayers also cover gasoline and maintenance expenses.” No cheap fleetmobiles for these aristocrats!
I hope the paper keeps pulling on that string; there’s bound to be more to unravel. For example, I’d look into disposal of the cars. Supposedly it’s by auction and the state fixes cars up so they’ll bring more. But it makes no sense to pay almost twelve grand to repair a five-year old Tahoe. Was that decision made by a fleet manager, a politically-connected repair shop, or the pol who wanted to keep driving the SUV?
Then there’s “Former Sen. John Burton, D-San Francisco, [who] waited until he was about to leave office in 2004 to fix four years of minor damage. That was cheaper, he said, than going to the shop for “every ding and dang” on his 1999 Buick LeSabre.” Body work and paint gets expensive fast. Might it be that Burton expected to be the “winning bidder” when he turned it back and left office, and wanted it to be like new?
For a time in my life I worked for and around politicians. My motto became “the more you know ’em, the less you like ’em.”
It’s good to be king…or at least a California legislator.
What kind of car is that in the photo? Without a grille, it’s unrecognizable!
Full caption to the photo, as it appears on the referenced site: Damage to the front end of the state-issued 2007 Toyota Highlander Hybrid sport utility vehicle driven by State Sen. Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, is seen parked at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., Wednesday, May 23, 2007. Migden was driving eastbound on Interstate 80, in Fairfield, Calif., when her vehicle bounced off the concrete median and nearly ran other motorists off the road, before slamming into the back of another vehicle, Friday. The rear-end collision injured a woman and her 3-year-old daughter who were sent to the emergency room. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
Migden was previously a supporter of a hang up and drive law.
There need to be way more of these stories both in the papers and on TV, getting as many voters/taxpayers outraged as possible. It’s the only way to get the crooks who represent us to either clean up their act or get booted from office. As 50merc said, I hope the SJMN does follow-up pieces.