Our local Government budget has a $10.4 Million Dollar shortfall and County Government seems not to know where to cut? 

 

This is the second in a series of examples I would like to share with you, the County Vehicle Fleet Department.

 

 

As you probably know Hernando County has a substantial Vehicle Fleet.  Today, I will show you the numbers that I obtained directly from the County's records and how much this fleet is costing the Taxpayers of Hernando County.

 

The Maintenance Department has 9 personnel working on the vehicles with a combined annual salary and benefit cost of $461,724.55, or an average of $51,302.72 for each employee.  This cost is included in the Maintenance Budgets listed below. 

 

In 2005, the Maintenance Budget was $1,763,805 and the County spent an additional $3,817,339 on new vehicles.  

In 2006, the Maintenance Budget was $2,049,157 and the County spent an additional $3,759,921 on new vehicles.

In 2007, the Maintenance Budget was $1,883,453 and the County spent an additional $5,804, 846 on new vehicles.

In 2008, the Maintenance Budget was $1,947,198 and the County spent an additional $2,814,000 on new vehicles. 

In 2009, the Maintenance Budget was $2,128,233 and the County spent an additional $3,789,548 on new vehicles.

For 2010, the Approved Maintenance Budget is $2,283,920 and the County Vehicle Replacement fund is $3,136,280.

 

Over a 6 year period the Fleet Maintenance cost was $12,055,766 and the  County spent $23,121,934 on new vehicles.  In just 6 years  this County Department spent an astonishing $35,177,700.

 

Did you know that when maintenance is done to a county vehicle, a bill is made out to the vehicle to charge the cost of the employees time to?  

 

How much do you spend on an oil change for your personal vehicle?  How much do you think you as a taxpayer spend on an oil change on a full size county pickup?  It cost us $87.00, that's right $87.00 for an oil change. 

 

It gets worse, when the maintenance cost on a specific vehicle gets to a certain point  (on paper) the vehicle is disposed of at the County auction at a fraction of its value.

 

It is obvious that we need do things different, for example, we wouldn't have to look far to find a cheaper oil change. 

 

There are more examples to come.  If you think this bulletin is informative, please feel free to share it with others.  Thank you!