PHOENIX -- Despite budget cuts and layoffs at nearly all levels, state and local governments in Arizona are spending millions of dollars on underused vehicles.

According to Arizona's guidelines, a "vehicle should be used a minimum of 10,000 to 15,000 miles per year to justify the cost of acquiring and maintaining it."

"If you have low miles on a vehicle … it raises a red flag," said Arizona Department of Administration public information officer Alan Ecker. "That red flag may be that maybe that vehicle isn't necessary."

Nevertheless, when 5 Investigates combed through mileage records for more than 1,600 state vehicles, 20 percent of them did not meet the minimum mileage standard.

By one estimate, it costs the state $2 million to lease, maintain and fuel the underused vehicles every year.

Ecker said the state got rid of hundreds of underused vehicles five years ago, and the ones left are needed.

"One of the things you have to remember is that mileage does not necessarily equate to usage," Ecker said. "(The vehicles are) being used all day long for appropriate work purposes, but they're just not logging a lot of miles."

5 Investigates also requested the mileage records for vehicles owned by Maricopa County and the cities of Phoenix, Scottsdale and Mesa; only Phoenix provided records.

Out of several thousand records, many of the vehicles failed to reach the state's minimum standards.

City officials refused repeated requests for on-camera interviews to explain their policy; however, they agreed to speak over the telephone.

According to a representative from the city, Phoenix's minimum mileage standard is 5,000 miles per year; however, the city is looking into getting rid of as many as 150 cars and trucks and replacing them with a downtown motor pool.

State guidelines recommend selling underused vehicles, using a motor pool system to maximize the use of remaining cars and, in some cases, reimbursing employees for using personal vehicles.

If the state, cities and county sold 500 vehicles total, they would save nearly $3 million per year, and raise between $1.5 million and $2.5 million -- money which could go to fund programs that are victims of budget cuts.