State government gasoline consumption climbed 4.5 percent during the year ended June 30 following an increase in fleet size.

State consumption of premium gasoline also rose in fiscal 2009. However, the state's overall bill for gasoline fell 2.9 percent to $4.27 million on a decline in gasoline prices, according to the Department of Accounting and General Services.

Gasoline consumption at the Honolulu Police Department , another major consumer, rose by 2.4 percent in fiscal 2009 to an average of 128,000 gallons a month. The average price for the mid-grade gasoline used by HPD fell 35 cents a gallon to $2.50 in the year ended June 30, according to the agency.

The government's rising consumption comes as a slowing economy forced consumers statewide to throttle back on gasoline consumption by 6.5 percent during the same period.

State Comptroller Russ Saito pegged the state's rising gasoline consumption to an increase in the size of the government's fleet of vehicles. As of September the state had 5,686 vehicles, which was up from 5,415 vehicles in January 2008. During that time the state added vans, buses, trucks and trailers to its fleet.

"Although the larger vehicles and trailers would not take gasoline, it seems clear that the gasoline consumption went up because we have more vehicles in our fleet," Saito said in an e-mail. "Also, the number of cars remains flat, but the number of 'work' vehicles has increased."

During fiscal 2009, the state spent $470,901 on premium gasoline and $3,796,288 on regular. That was down from $476,199 spent on premium and $3,919,925 spent on regular during the prior year.