Liquor chiefs lose state-issued cars

New Hampshire's three liquor commissioners are no longer being allowed to take state cars home after a review showed they drove too many miles for personal reasons.

A state review found their personal use was well above the limit of 15 percent of total mileage set by the state. The three commissioners, who drive to liquor stores across the state in an initiative to manage and upgrade them, submitted waiver requests, but those were denied.

Administrative Services Commissioner Linda Hodgdon presented the report to the joint legislative Fiscal Committee last month, showing 233 vehicles from a fleet of 1,884 vehicles were used for non-business reasons above the state's limit. Fourteen waiver requests were denied, and the cars were reassigned to the state's auto pool or other people.

Among the reassigned cars were the three used by the liquor commissioners, said state Sen. Lou D'Allesandro, a committee member. The Liquor Commission, entrusted with licensing liquor stores and enforcing rules, kept one car used by an inspector, he said.

Hodgdon said yesterday that the Department of Corrections commissioner, the Fish and Game Department executive director and the Veterans Home administrator also lost their cars. Resources and Economic Development, Safety, Transportation and Police Standards and Training Council also lost vehicles to the pool or to reassignment.

An independent watchdog group, The Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy, has been reviewing the personal use of state vehicles and reports that state employees drove state-owned vehicles at least 1.5 million miles for personal reasons during the last fiscal year and that 1.1 million of the miles were by workers for the Department of Transportation.

In her report, Hodgdon said she was concerned that the state law singles out agencies or employees who are honest in reporting their utilization of work vehicles.

"If an agency or employee chooses to, they could work around this requirement," she wrote in her report.

Yesterday, Hodgdon reiterated that concern and said it is important to determine which people save the state money by using state cars. She said the state spent $3 million last year paying workers for mileage on personal vehicles. The state's cost for its cars is 33 cents per mile compared with 55.5 cents for personal cars, she said.

"A part of some people's job is driving," she said. "Some people's job is being on the road all the time."

Hodgdon said besides the 14 whose waivers were denied, another 25 cars were reassigned and the Department of Transportation plans to identify another 10 cars to reassign. She said that is 49 cars out of 233.

"We're heading in the right direction," she said.

The commissioners who were stripped of personal use of their cars didn't immediately respond to telephone or email messages seeking comment yesterday.