BATON ROUGE -- Record high gasoline prices are hitting the budgets of state agencies, which use thousands of vehicles for law enforcement, highway work and inspecting agriculture.

Millions of dollars have been allocated to the state's most mobile agencies to cover additional fuel costs from the past budget year and to hopefully prepare them for the next.

"Fuel is a major concern," Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Mike Strain said.

The department uses a fleet of more than 900 vehicles to inspect and regulate the state's agriculture business, including monitoring food production and checking every gas pump in Louisiana, Strain said.

Strain said he is planning a fuel summit next week with his employees to emphasize the need to conserve fuel.

Since the beginning of this year, the department has pumped nearly 490,000 gallons of fuel into its vehicles at an expense of more than $1.5 million, agriculture department spokesman Sam Irwin said.

Department of Transportation and Development spokesman Dustin Annison said his agency has 6,000 vehicles. But the department has been able to make more fuel-efficient choices when buying replacement vehicles, Annison said.

"Being that our business is mainly doing road work all over the state, there's really not much we can do in terms of cutting our fleet," Annison said.

Michael DiResto, spokesman for the state Division of Administration, said the state purchasing department is working on a new system to require state departments and agencies to use more fuel-efficient cars as they become available.

DiResto said the agency already has been monitoring agencies' budgets and offering assistance through supplemental appropriations when possible.

State police received $1.3 million in additional money for fuel costs to finish out the fiscal year that ended June 30, DiResto said. Their 2009 budget includes more than $850,000 in additional funds, he said.

The Department of Transportation and Development's transportation trust fund, which can be used to help with fuel costs, increased by $16.1 million, DiResto said.

Col. Mike Edmonson, head of state police, said he is prudent in how the agency addresses its fuel costs, but the focus is still on public safety. While car manufacturers are designing more efficient vehicles, the agency needs vehicles specifically made for law enforcement officers, Edmonson said.

Edmonson is not embracing the practice of putting more troopers in each vehicle, saying that would mean less law enforcement on the road.

But allowing troopers to take their cars home -- used as a crime deterrent -- may be a practice that comes to a stop, Edmonson said.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)