Carbon County employees who use their own vehicle while conducting county business will get reimbursed more as officials move to increase the policy in line with other mileage reimbursement guidelines.

On Thursday, the county commissioners adopted a new mileage reimbursement rate of 60 cents per mile, effective July 1. The previous reimbursement rate was 45 cents per mile.

Commissioner Chris Lukasevich pointed out that the reimbursement rate had not increased since at least 2006.

“It’s definitely necessary,” he said.

The increase will affect about 99 of the county’s employees in various departments, including Children and Youth, the coroner’s office, the IT department and Area Agency on Aging.

He said that these offices are “high frequency, high mileage accumulators” due to not having a set schedule for when they will need to go out.

In 2021, these employees traveled a total of 85,000 miles in their personal vehicles when county vehicles were either not available or it was after hours. The county currently has 51 vehicles in its fleet for employee use.

Lukasevich said that the reimbursement increase will have an approximately $14,000 impact on the budget, which “is not a significant impact ... but it is one we have to be conscientious of.”

The county is also testing a pilot program for using a mileage calculation app to help streamline the process away from paper.

Two employees from Children and Youth and two from Area of Aging are helping to determine if the pilot program will be suitable for the county.

It will provide less paperwork and eliminates a task on supervisors to confirm all mileage traveled.

Commissioner Rocky Ahner added that in addition to the reimbursement, the county is beginning to purchase new vehicles that have get better mileage to save on gas costs when traveling for work related items.