LANSING- Some state officials may consider forming carpools if the calls of an Oakland County legislator are heard.

In an effort to cut the deficit, Rep. Fran Amos, R-Waterford, is drafting a bill to prohibit the state from providing officials with taxpayer-funded automobiles.

Officials who would be included in the ban are department directors and their deputies, as well as elected officials such as the attorney general and secretary of state. They would still qualify for reimbursement for job-related use of their own vehicles. 

Legislators, however, would not be affected by the ban because they don't get vehicles from the state fleet.

Amos, who is on the House Appropriations Committee, said that her legislation is a response to a Democratic proposal to eliminate vehicles for judges.

"You can't do just one little segment. That isn't going to save the kind of money that we need. We have to go where the money's at, so you have to take big chunks of stuff.

"They need to share in the wealth so to speak, or the non-wealth, whatever we have," she said of the officials who would lose their wheels.

Gabe Basso, legislative director for Amos, said that while the exact potential savings have yet to be determined, it could save the state almost $1 million. He also said that while the precise number of vehicles is unknown, it would be around 60. 

Some advocates of budget-cutting are heralding the proposal.

Leon Drolet, executive director of the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance, which opposes some government spending, says that the ban would be a positive step.

"I think it's long overdue. For the last six years, we've heard nothing from Lansing other than 'there's nothing left to cut, there's nothing left to cut, we've already cut the budget to the bone' until we find out that a great number of elected and appointed officials are driving around in cars provided by taxpayers' expense," said Drolet.

"It's not something private citizens have the luxury of, of having other taxpayers pay for their car."

While Drolet supports the measure, he said the state should maintain a small vehicle fleet.

"I can understand a department having a small pool of cars that you would check out if you had to go out on official business and drive someplace."

However, he said the current system of providing directors and other high officials automobiles "sends a signal to voters and citizens and taxpayers that government officials are somehow in a special class above citizens, and it's supposed to be the opposite way around, where they're serving the public."

Kelly Chesney, press secretary for Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land, said the ban would not bother her boss, as she has never used a state fleet vehicle.

Chesney said that in addition to wanting to use her own vehicle for her personal life, Land has refused a fleet vehicle and reimbursement for travel costs to avoid potential problems of using state money for political activities.