Counties in the D.C. region will spend millions of dollars more than they expected on fuel for school buses, police cars and trash trucks this year because of rising gas prices, officials said. Fairfax County alone will pay about $8 million more this year than it budgeted for fuel. An official in Montgomery County –which guzzles about 420,000 gallons a month — said the county has exceeded its budget for fuel by $50,000 so far this year and could see that number rise drastically.
“We are certainly paying more now per gallon than we had estimated price per gallon last year when we were forecasting the fiscal 2011 budget,” said David Dise of Montgomery County’s General Services.
Dise said the county spends an extra $4,200 a month for every penny increase at the pumps. The county has been taking steps to cut down on fuel costs, he said.
“We’ve reduced the amount of take-home vehicles, we’ve reduced number of SUVs in the fleet, we’ve done a number of things to increase the average miles per gallon and economy of the fleet,” he said.
In Fairfax County, Budget Director Susan Datta recently said the county uses about 11 million gallons a year for its fleet. The county expected to pay $2.37 per gallon when it put together its budget last year, but with gas prices nearing $4 nationwide, Datta said the county will have to rely on reserve accounts to help cover the extra fuel costs.
Chris Allison, who runs Arlington County’s equipment bureau and manages its vehicle fleet, said the county goes through about a million gallons of fuel a year and officials expect to pay 30 cents more per gallon than budgeted because of higher prices.
“It means every ten cents is an extra hundred thousand dollars,” he said.
