Topeka ? After a two-year moratorium on the purchase of new vehicles, the state of Kansas is back in the showroom, kicking the tires with an estimated $6.1 million to spend on new cars, pickups and vans.

“These are just replacement cars for those that have miled out,” Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ budget director, Duane Goossen, said Tuesday.

Goossen told House budget-writers that the state would “emerge slowly and carefully from the moratorium” when it expires in November.

“We want the state fleet to come down, not grow,” he said.

When Sebelius took office in 2003, state officials couldn’t even get a handle on how many vehicles the state owned. It was finally determined the state had about 7,000 passenger vehicles, plus hundreds of trailers, heavy equipment and other types of vehicles.

Sebelius overhauled the system by eliminating the central motor pool, selling more than 700 vehicles, and halting new vehicle purchases except for law enforcement. The total savings was about $9.8 million, according to the governor’s office.

Now, Goossen said the state needs to replace about 334 vehicles, 250 fewer than what state agencies had requested. Any car to be replaced must have reached 100,000 miles, and any pickup, 140,000 miles.

Of the $6.1 million proposed to be spent, $726,026 will come from state tax dollars, with the remaining coming from the federal government or from fees paid to the agencies.

The largest buyer would be the Kansas Department of Transportation, which would get 110 pickups and 27 cars.