How is this possible in a state that wastes money on everything else, never bothers to build an executive residence? California must be about the only state in the union NOT to have a govenors mansion.
Alaska's Governor's Mansion
Posted on 11/17/2004 5:40:13 PM PST by wagglebee
California Governor Arnold Scwarzenegger may not exactly be homeless, but the only place in Sacramento where he and his wife can call home is a Hyatt hotel across the street from the state Capitol.
State officials are questioning how the hotel's sizable room rate is being paid.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle's columnists Matier and Ross, California's Fair Political Practices Commission demanded the Schwarzeneggers stop having the governor's campaign committee pay the hefty $6,000-a-month rental. There is no governor's mansion in Sacramento, so, starting today, the hotel bill is being paid by a new nonprofit foundation that is on the hunt for a more permanent residence for the state's chief executive officer and his wife. "Not having a governor's residence is kind of an embarrassing thing," attorney Tom Hiltachk, point man for the new Governor's Residence Foundation of California, told the Chronicle. Another foundation was created two decades ago to pay for the Fair Oaks house that then-Gov. George Deukmejian used also housed Govs. Pete Wilson and Gray Davis.
But the Chronicle reports that just as Schwarzenegger won the office, the foundation that owned the place called it quits and sold the house. Hiltachk told the Chronicle he hopes to have a new foundation board meet within the next 60 days to review the options for finding a permanent governor's residence.
One thing's for sure, he says: "It's silly that this has gone on upward of 20 years." The Schwazeneggers have a luxurious residence in Los Angeles. They toyed with the idea of buying the Carmichael house that Nancy Reagan once commissioned as the governor's mansion, but they dropped that idea after the sellers demanded $3.5 million - about $1.5 million more than Arnold and Maria were willing to pay.
According to the Chronicle, that house recently sold for about the $4.5 million asking price. While the hotel bill is being paid by the foundation, the mega-millionaire Schwarzeneggers have to cough up the cost of room service and meals. "He's a big boy - he's got his own credit card for that," a source close Schwarzenegger told the Chronicle columnists.
Let Arnie be. He's doing the job we sent him there for and if he actually likes to live out of a hotel instead of a residence, well, that's his business. Leave him alone.
Just across the street from the office should save on limo bills.
agreed
Plus, he's not taking a salary.
They are loser girly men!
I simply can't imagine the stress on a mega millionaire having to endure a $6000/mo. hotel suite. Must be horrific.
Alaska's Governor's Mansion
The old Governor's mansion on 16th street is a museum now if I recall correctly. The governor needs a house.
Let's not be financial girlie men, people. Let him be.
It's not Arnie's fault. The Reagan residence was fine, but as I recall, Jerry Brown refused to live there and let it go out of state control. Just goes to show how far south this state has gone.
When you consider the fact that he isn't making any movies while in office and his wife is no longer working, my guess is that the Scwarzeneggers are giving up at least $10 million a year in income while he is in office. Now I realize that many politicians take pay cuts to serve, there is absolutely no reason that a state the size of California doesn't have a governor's mansion. Now the left is blaming him for not paying more than he wanted to pay (with his own money), for a house that the state government was supposed to have bought over thirty years ago.
Agreed. It's embarrassing for California, the state of rolling blackouts and homeless governors.
not to worry, RINOld won't be around much longer. LMAO
I think the governator could rent the biggest house in Sacramento without much of a dent in his budget.
The early Presidents of the United States had to PAY THEIR OWN STAFF'S SALARIES IF THEY WANTED PAID HELP AROUND!
Governor "Moonbeam" Brown
California's crisis was the result of fiscal irresponsibility, the fact that Arnold CAN afford to pay for his own residence doesn't mean he SHOULD pay for it. Picking up the tab for the state because he can afford it doesn't make the state become responsible, that is just another form of what Grayout Davis tried to get the federal government to do. California can have a thriving economy, but it will never happen if they keep looking for handouts. For what it's worth, I don't think very many of us would be happy living in a hotel room for over a year.
I was thinking the same thing. It's a non-story.
Jerry Brown didn't live in the governor's mansion. Nancy Reagan WOULD not live there. This seems to be an ongoing condition!
Nancy could not live in the governor's mansion because it was broken down. Jerry Brown did not live there (that was before the Reagans) ... but the mansion was supposedly so broken down in the Reagan years that it was essentially unlivable.
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