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Jerry Brown May Be Un-Pimping Your State-Owned Ride
Photo by GarySe7en via LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr
First cell phones and now the car. California, you're grounded. Why? Because you broke curfew to go on a date with that college boy, and you're $25.4 billion over your allowance.
On Friday, Jerry Brown ordered California agencies to immediately stop buying new cars and announced that all vehicles deemed non-essential for state business are to be sold within 120 days. "There is a lot of wasteful spending on cars that aren't even driven," Brown said in a statement," reports the LA Times, "and we can't afford to spend taxpayer money on new cars while California faces such a massive deficit."
California owns 50,000 cars, trucks, vans, buses, boats and aircraft, said a spokeswoman for the governor, according to the LA Times. Brown, who reportedly drives his state-owned 2008 Pontiac for work, wants to cut the 11,000 passenger cars and light trucks by fifty percent. Safe from repo are vehicles used by health and public safety agencies like California Highway Patrol and Caltrans. Brown is hoping the fleet reduction will save the state $16.5 million annually.
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
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You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
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