Dallas / Fort Worth Local News

(AP) While Gov. Rick Perry's lavish new rental home has become a popular water-cooler topic for Texans, his staff has been hard at work trying to keep a positive spin on the upcoming move.

Perry and wife Anita will live at taxpayer expense in a secluded $9,900-a-month estate for about a year while the historic Governor's Mansion undergoes repairs and upgrades.

The Governor's Mansion, a designated National Historic Landmark, is set for a facelift that will include new plumbing and will rid the house of lead paint and a compound believed to contain asbestos.

In the meantime, Perry's new pad will be a 6,386-square-foot property that was most recently listed on the market for $1.85 million.

It's caused some angst in Perry's office.

The governor's staff has refused to let photographers onto the gated property and fumed at reporters who used words such as "posh" to describe it.

The new home sits on 3.25 acres and has pecan hardwood floors, a gourmet kitchen with granite and marble countertops, as well as an outdoor kitchen near the heated pool. It includes a subzero refrigerator, a balcony and a third-story attic converted to a game room. The guest house will be used as staff quarters, spokesman Robert Black said.

Perry's office announced the Governor's Mansion project last month, inviting several reporters to the mansion to discuss the needed upgrades and preservation efforts.

Black insisted the undertaking be referred to as "a massive maintenance project," rather than a renovation.

At the Aug. 29 gathering, Black said the Perrys did not yet know where they would live.

"We don't know right now," he said. "I think they're looking at all the options, everything varying from downtown to in the suburbs."

But documents examined by The Associated Press show that owners of the three-story, limestone home -- which includes a $1,800 pet addendum for the Perrys' dachshund Lucy -- agreed to lease the property to the governor on Aug. 23 -- six days before Black met with reporters.

Black reiterated Friday that the Perrys did not know where they would be living until a representative for the state signed the lease Sept. 6.

Attempts by The AP to reach the seller's real estate agent for more information were unsuccessful. A woman who answered the phone at Keller Williams Realty said she'd been instructed to direct all inquiries about the property to Black.

Black characterized the descriptions of the property included in the real estate listings as "exaggerations" and compared them to a beefed up resume.

The flap has inevitably drawn comparisons to other, similar projects at governors' homes. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee moved his family into a donated triplewide mobile home for 16 months in 2000.

"I'm a Republican. I'm trying to save the taxpayers money," Huckabee explained at the time.

Black said Perry needs the space for his security staff and to host functions expected of the governor of Texas.

Southern Methodist University political science professor Cal Jillson says that argument will take Perry "some distance down the road." But he adds the governor shouldn't be surprised if Texans consider the new digs too extravagant.

"People really don't believe it's necessary to live on resort grounds at $10,000 a month," Jillson said.

The last time a Texas governor was forced out of the mansion while it underwent repairs was Bill Clements in 1979. He moved to a $1,500-a-month downtown condominium while the mansion underwent repairs.

Rent for Perry's new residence is part of the estimated $10 million in renovation costs for the Governor's Mansion.

Perry is required by the state constitution to live in Austin while governor. But the rental property is technically outside city limits in an unincorporated area about 14 miles from the Capitol.

Black said that's not a problem for the governor.

"His residency is still the mansion," Black said. "The law says that your residency is determined by where you intend to return to. He just sleeps somewhere else."

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