Texas Governor Rick Perry is moving back into the Governor's Mansion. For the $25 million it cost the state to renovate it, he better enjoy it.
The state originally allocated just $10 million for the mansion's renovation, according to USA Today. However, the cost of the renovation rose significantly following a 2008 arson attack, which severely damaged much of the building.
Perry's public stance favoring budget cuts has made the exorbitant cost for the mansion's renovation controversial, Bloomberg reports.
During his unsuccessful bid for the Republican Party's Presidential nomination, Perry proposed balancing the budget by slashing federal government spending and cutting taxes, The Washington Post reports.
Perry puts his money where his mouth is, splashing state spending in Texas by $15 billion last year. Perry cut $5 billion cut in education spending and $3.1 billion in Medicaid spending, WaPo reports. Meanwhile, the Federal Agency for Health Care Research and Quality has estimated that Texas' health care system is the worst in the country. (h/t: The Houston Chronicle)
The improved Governor's Mansion will include inch-thick longleaf pine floors, an added wing and a geothermal heating and cooling system that required digging 40 350-foot (107 meter) wells, according to Bloomberg. The cost of the mansion renovations would have paid for 11 million school lunches.