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Monday, May 14, 2012

Why We Can't Cut Spending, But Must Increase Taxes

Because there's no waste left in government.  Like this wonderful example that I found from reading Small Dead Animals:

Have you ever bought a brand new cars only to forget where you put it? How about 300 of them? Probably not – unless you're Miami-Dade County, which was recently reunited with 298 vehicles it bought brand new between 2006 and 2007.
The county "discovered" this fleet of no-mileage vehicles after reading about them in a Spanish-language newspaper there (see the source for more images). Most of the misplaced motorcade is made up of Toyota Prius hybrids whose warranties either expired with very few miles on the odo or will very soon.
Now, one of the comments explains that this isn't quite as stupid as it looks:
As usual there are now ~300 comments without anyone interested in facts of the case. Those interested go to Miami Herald web site and type "300 prius" in to search box.
-Reduction of fleet size, and inability to cancel prior orders led to stockpiling
-1,200 (!) unused cars in spring of 2008
-Serviced every two months
-Prius are problem because their warranty starts at purhace, opposed to other fleet vehicles whose warranty starts only after taken in to use
That makes it all so much more sensible, doesn't it?  The county government couldn't figure out how to avoid buying 1200 cars that it didn't need, and rather than resell them to get that capital back, they just put them in the closet.

2 comments:

  1. "...and rather than resell them to get that capital back, they just put them in the closet."

    Worse than that if the commenter is to be believed. They actually had them serviced every two months while they sat there in the closet. I assume someone(s) got paid to do that job.

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  2. even worse, the batteries more than likely are now toast after being allowed to run down below 20% capacity and be recharged repeatedly

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