Hey, lay off!! She's just trying to do her job!!--Worley defends SUV purchase while laying off five employees

10/27/03

The Associated Press

MONTGOMERY - Secretary of State Nancy Worley, ordering employee layoffs at her agency because of state budget cuts, defended the purchase of a sport utility vehicle for her official use.

The $30,275, V-8 powered 2003 Ford Expedition Eddie Bauer model SUV, which included $7,831 in upgrades, is nearly three times the cost of an air-conditioned Ford Taurus the state pays $11,881 for at the same Huntsville dealership where Worley bought the Expedition, The New York Times regional newspapers reported.

Gee, what's everyone complaining about?! I mean, it's not like she got the Paint Protection Package--everyone knows that's a scam.

State Finance Director Drayton Nabers, who had twice turned down Worley's request for an expensive vehicle, according to Riley's press secretary, approved the purchase on Sept. 23, records show.

Third time's the charm, eh?

Worley said her budget was cut $258,000 for the 2003-04 fiscal year, an amount she had to absorb by firing employees. So far, she's laid off five people.

She said the $19,000 difference between the Ford Expedition and a Ford Taurus wouldn't have saved anyone's job.

Yep, but it might have saved yours if you had thought just a few more seconds before slapping the ol' Jane Hancock on the papers.

No matter who or what $19,000 could or could not have purchased, with the state in a budget-cutting mode, this is extraordinarily ill-timed and ill-advised, if for no other reason than the appearance of callous disregard for employees and taxpayers.

Worley, a Democrat, was elected in 2002 and succeeded two-term Secretary of State Jim Bennett. He drove a full-size Crown Victoria that Worley's office inherited.

Worley said her office's vehicles were high-mileage and she felt they weren't dependable. Worley also said her office got rid of a van so the Expedition serves both as a van and a car for her.

Worley told newspapers she needed a vehicle the size of the Expedition because it can haul both equipment and her staff to voting seminars. Otherwise, she said, they would have to take two vehicles.

She said she "personally" doesn't like the Expedition because it rides like a truck. "But it's one we're having to use to haul boxes of voter material by virtue of having to go to a lot of places where we take computers and equipment," she said.

See!? It's not even if she even likes it--it's really a burden, you know.

And the financial decision is surely backed up by a cost-benefit analysis--some kind of statistical proof, right? Something that shows that whatever method of transport Pre-Expedition, it was vastly more expensive and cumbersome than a nice cush Eddie Bauer, right?

Worley said no other acceptable vehicle was on the Huntsville Ford dealer's lot the day she looked. "I waited so late to start looking for a vehicle I had to buy what was on the lot," she said.

Oh. So she just had to buy whatever they had. Man, that is so tragic. Imagine the pain. The suffering.

"Well, Madame Secretary, we have this luxurious Taurus wagon, and this lush Windstar minivan, and this luxo Explorer; but I know you, in your selfless dedication to serving the taxpayers of the State of Alabama, would not want to cloak yourself in one of those terrible, luxurious, vehicles, but would rather want to make the ultimate sacrifice of having to drive around in this large, truck-like Expedition, with all of those horrible Eddie Bauer accouterments that make public service so difficult."

She meant that she started late in the 2002-03 fiscal year to look for a vehicle that had been accounted for in her office budget for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.

"None of that money from the 2003 budget would have carried over," Worley said. "We would have simply lost it."

Yes, the horror. The horror.

I think I speak for all of your fellow citizens by saying thanks for staving off this loss. Remember, tax money belongs to YOU, not to taxpayers--if you got too much, then by all means, go out and by gold-plated turd scrapers if you have to, but whatever you do, DON'T LOSE IT!!

State agencies have to return unspent money at the end of the fiscal year, which encourages them to spend it all because they don't automatically get the unspent money in the following year's budget.

Well, we'd just go waste it on food or rent or something.
posted by Terry at 11:19:00 AM