2011-08-27 "Texan Taxpayers Foot The Bill For Perry’s Presidential Run" by Robin M.
[http://www.care2.com/causes/texan-taxpayers-foot-the-bill-for-perrys-presidential-run.html]
Running for president is a very, very expensive business. You have campaign workers, media buys, travel, security, polling, and a wide variety of other costs that can number in the hundreds of thousands of dollars a month.
Luckily, for Texas Governor Rick Perry, he’s found a way to defray some of those expenses. Charge them to his constituents.
According to the Washington Post [http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/perrys-travel-security-costs-will-stay-secret-until-after-2012/2011/08/22/gIQANIZBjJ_story.html?wprss=rss_campaigns], Perry has brought on Texas law enforcement to help out with his security, scouting out the sites that events will be held at ahead of time, providing extra enforcement while he’s in attendance. The costs for those additional hours are of course being passed on to the state budget, and paid for with the state’s gas tax and vehicle registration fees.
How much are these extra security costing the state? Well, conveniently enough, no one knows. Records of the governor’s security costs have been kept under wraps for years, with the Department of Safety declaring that releasing the info could jeopardize Perry’s safety.
Presumably, they don’t just mean because Texans would be so angry to see how much money it is that he might get hurt.
Those records will be concealed even longer, despite numerous attempts to get them released, thanks to a bill passed in the special session that states they must be kept closed another 18 months. Which just happens to be until after the 2012 election has ended.
What is Perry keeping secret, and how much is his protection really running? It may be a long time before we ever find out, but it looks like Texans will need to keep doing a lot of driving to cover it.