Topeka ? The state is saving $5 million to $6 million a year with improved management of its vehicle fleet, and it captured $28 million in one-time savings from various policy changes, Budget Director Duane Goossen said Monday.

But some Republican legislators remained skeptical of the benefits of initiatives from Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. Those initiatives included ending the state’s central motor pool and selling off hundreds of state cars.

Goossen released figures for projected savings a day before he was to testify before the Senate Ways and Means Committee. Sebelius has repeatedly cited efforts to cut vehicle-related costs as an example of how her administration has remade state government.

“All of this vehicle policy stuff has come out better than we had expected,” Goossen said during an interview. “The savings have been greater than we had expected it when planning it.”

But Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt said he believes the state is saving money because employees are driving less, not because of Sebelius’ policies.

“It is good that we’re causing state employees to drive less when it’s not necessary. It is good we are not buying cars that we don’t need,” said Schmidt, R-Independence. “The only thing is, we didn’t have to make the claim that we’ve reinvented sliced bread.”

The savings come as fuel prices have risen. The state spent $16.5 million on motor fuels in calendar 2005, compared with less than $11 million in calendar 2003, a difference of 52 percent.

In November 2003, when Sebelius announced her initiatives, the state’s fleet, outside the Kansas Highway Patrol and state universities, totaled almost 4,300 cars, trucks and vans, including 1,500 in a central motor pool used by agencies when their own fleets weren’t sufficient.

Sebelius imposed a two-year moratorium on new vehicles purchases, dissolved the central motor pool and ordered the sale of unnecessary vehicles. The state fleet is expected to be 3,400 vehicles by June 30, 2007.

Without a central motor pool, agencies sometimes get vehicles from Enterprise Rent-a-Car or have employees drive private vehicles. Sebelius had suggested those costs would be lower.

But Republicans questioned the initiatives from the outset. A 1997 state audit had suggested any savings from eliminating the motor pool would be small and costs would depend on how much employees drove.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Melvin Neufeld said employees in individual agencies are telling legislators that renting cars is more expensive than other alternatives.

“We’re still trying to compile the numbers on what’s happening out there,” said Neufeld, R-Ingalls.

Goossen said the state’s annual spending on new vehicles averaged $9.5 million in the four years before Sebelius imposed the two-year moratorium. The moratorium saved nearly $18 million. After the state resumed vehicle purchases in 2005, its projected costs dropped $3.4 million a year.

“This is definitely a better way to do business,” Goossen said.

The sale of nearly 700 vehicles generated $1.6 million for the state, which also captured $5.1 million in motor pool funds when the pool was eliminated.

But Neufeld questioned whether either item represented true savings.

“Selling a state asset is what it amounted to,” Neufeld said. “That’s just less state assets.”

While the state spends more annually on rentals and mileage from employees’ personal vehicles, those costs are more than offset by not running the motor pool, Goossen’s figures show.

Non-fuel expenses in calendar year 2005 were about $2 million lower than they were in 2003.

And, Goossen said, the state now has a complete list of its vehicles to make managing its fleet more effective.

“We have a much better grasp of our fleet, and we’re taking a much more aggressive approach in controlling it,” he said.