Texas Democratic Party: Moving Texas Forward

Austin, TX) – Gov. Rick Perry says that “every penny we save now” will help overcome the state’s estimated $18 billion budget deficit, but he refuses to give up his taxpayer-financed palace.

“Governor you’ve spent $600,000 of taxpayer money on your private palace, and that comes to 60 million pennies,” said Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie. Richie added, “Sixty million pennies saved is sixty million pennies earned. The governor ought to give up his taxpayer-financed seven-bathroom mansion, his Neiman Marcus draperies, his $700 clothes rack, and his fancy gourmet food magazines.”

Perry has come under heavy criticism for his extravagant use of taxpayer money on his luxurious lifestyle. News reports indicate he’s spent $600,000 over the last two years to live in splendor. Perry appears to have turned down a home offered to him for $1 per year by the Texas AFL-CIO. [Source: Associated Press, 5/17/10; Associated Press, 5/19/10]

Just the other day, Perry said, “Every penny we save now in the 2010-11 biennium is one penny closer to balancing the budget in the next legislative session.” [Source: San Antonio Express News, 5/20/10]

“Rick Perry says he’s penny wise. In reality he’s pound foolish, and penny foolish, too,” said Richie. “He’s spending Texans’ hard-earned money to live like Louie XIV.”

Richie pointed out that Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Joe Straus recommended steep cuts in health care funding as a way of addressing the state’s deficit. [Source: San Antonio Express News, 5/20/10]

“Rick Perry thinks he needs and deserves seven bathrooms, but the health of hardworking Texans cannot be sacrificed to his arrogant and lavish lifestyle – the lifestyle of supermodels and French royalty.”