Maybe the state could share some of its excess vehicles with local governments.

The news that the state of Kansas owns hundreds of cars that it rarely or never uses must have been particularly upsetting for local government officials trying to make up for a loss of state funds.

While the state was spending about $2 million to buy and mothball about 130 new cars last year, it was cutting off demand transfers of state funds to city and county governments. It was a low blow to those local governments that now are in the process of finalizing their budgets, many of which will include a mill-levy increase that is partially attributable to the lost state funds.

So here’s an idea for the state to make amends. Why not give some of those extra state vehicles to city and county governments? It’s a pretty good bet that about every local government budget in the state includes an expenditure for purchasing vehicles. If the state isn’t using its vehicles, maybe it should distribute them across the state. The inventory of 130 new vehicles would provide one for each Kansas county with 25 left over for the state to use as replacements.

Assuming that the state does a better job next year of estimating how many new cars it needs to buy, this year’s give-away would be a one-shot deal, but it might buy some good will across the state and put the idle vehicles to better use.

Just a thought.