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Cuomo questions state police car use

Feb 07, 2011 8:52 am
The Daily Mail is running an AP story on its front page today, all about Gov. Andrew Cuomo's current campaign against state police command officers and investigators' use of company cars for private use, and other mileage abuses in the agency. The governor is saying he's just looking at whether the government needs to buy, fuel and maintain nearly 60,000 vehicles in state fleets including nearly 3,500 trooper cars, almost half individually assigned to investigators and command officers because they may get called to duty from home, although some seldom, if ever, do. "State police said they don’t keep track of recalls to duty from home," the story notes. For now, Cuomo proposes a $60 million cut from the State Police and no training class for new troopers for a third year. "The Budget Division in 2009 issued a directive that prohibits personal use of state cars, except at certain times when it’s 'ancillary to official business' and allows 'occasional commuting purposes within a reasonable distance, where the vehicle is mainly used for agency business,'" the story continues. What the story does NOT go into, at all, is what happened to former governor Eliot Spitzer when he started going after, and using, state police on several issues during his brief term.