Governor’s Mansion gets renovations. Governor Perry is temporarily relocating.

We’ve all been reading about this for sometime. First, the announcement came that the Governor’s Mansion is slated to receive $10 million in repairs. Wow. That’s mind boggling. Most people can’t begin to wrap their brains around that amount of money. That aside, what have we been doing to maintain the Governor’s Mansion? The last time renovations were done was back in the 1979 during the Bill Clements term. He lived in a condo downtown for $1500 a month. So we’ve waited more than 30 years to take care of the asbestos and plumbing, wouldn’t repairs done more frequently be a little less costly? Okay really. If the Mansion has been needing repairs that get put off year after year for budgetary issues, how did we come up with the money this year? If some problems only get worse over time, didn’t waiting simply cost more money? If we had not waited to make these repairs, would it have been possible for the Perry’s to stay at the mansion while the repairs were being completed? Sure, it might be a little less convenient, but if the Governor is at the capital everyday working and Mrs. Perry is out doing her philanthropy, it is really that inconvenient?

So now, let’s talk about the digs that have been selected for temporary housing. They found a lovely house that is outside of Austin proper. I guess that there’s nothing within the city limits that would fit the bill. Anyway, they can still pick up their mail everyday at the Mansion, since again, he’ll be right down the street at the capital, so technically they don’t have to change addresses. The temporary residence is a gated 6,386 square foot house on more than 3 acres of land with a guesthouse, a game room and a heated pool – winter’s coming you know. Honestly, $10,000 a month is hard to justify. We could just buy the property and ditch the Mansion, saving the taxpayers $8 million. Of course an amendment would be in order with regards to residency for our Governor.

Here’s a couple of links if you would like more information about these two issues.

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/region/legislature/stories/09/28/0928house.html

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/5171104.html