CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The state of West Virginia currently owns 8,380 vehicles.
That is the total inventory finally determined following implementation of last year’s House Bill 4015, said House Committee on Government Organization Chairman Gary Howell, R-Mineral, who championed that bill.
“After years of confusion and conflicting data, we finally know how many vehicles the state owns,” Chairman Howell said. “It took a long time to get to this point, but now we finally have made agencies transparent and accountable with regard to the vehicles they manage.”
House Bill 4015 created a permanent Fleet Management Division in the Department of Administration and required annual reporting and continual tracking of the state’s vehicle fleet.
It also established the State Vehicle Title, Registration and Relicensing Project of 2018, which phased out the old green and white state vehicle license plates and replaced them with gold and blue ones after the vehicle was re-registered with the state Division of Motor Vehicles.
The bill also allows the State Auditor’s Office to conduct spot compliance audits with various state agencies to check records and monitor compliance with the new law.
With the bill now fully implemented, the state Division of Motor Vehicles has reported an updated, accurate tally of state vehicles. This includes:
“The 8,380 total vehicles found in this inventory process is about 4,000 less than the roughly 12,000 vehicles that our Board of Risk and Insurance Management had been paying to insure,” Chairman Howell said. “With this definitive total, we will be able to save taxpayers nearly $400,000 in BRIM premium payments each year – meaning the costs of implementing this bill will be paid for in about three months.
“We are committed to implementing sound, transparent government practices, and House Bill 4015 was a critical step in providing our citizens with a full accounting of how their tax dollars are being spent with regard to the state’s vehicle fleet,” Chairman Howell. “This legislation will continue to reap benefits by helping to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse in state government.”