Governor mansion remodel downsized
BOISE – Idaho will spend about $250,000 in private money to remodel the governor’s mansion, enough to make it livable but far short of a proposed $3 million makeover that had envisioned a dining area for 150 and an entrance big enough for a horse-drawn carriage.
The limited remodel, which also could include efforts to replace a giant lawn with native grass to reduce watering costs, raises the question of whether a $4,500 monthly housing stipend that Gov. Butch Otter now collects will end, lawmakers said.
After failing to muster sufficient cash for the larger revamp, the state Department of Administration is using about half of the roughly $475,000 in donations collected so far on paint, new flooring, furniture and appliances so the house could host visiting dignitaries, dinners or agency retreats.
“We are starting the process of making the house a functioning house,” said Teresa Luna, a spokeswoman for the Department of Administration, which manages the property. “Other options are further down the road. This was the solution to make the house usable – hopefully by the end of the year.”
Billionaire J.R. Simplot, who died in May, donated the 7,400-square-foot house in 2004 to be used as a governor’s mansion.
It’s stood vacant ever since, as efforts to raise more than $3 million from private and corporate sponsors for the ambitious revamp and expansion lost steam. Absent a functioning state residence, Otter, a millionaire, gets $4,500 monthly to live at his ranch west of Boise. Some on the five-member Governor’s Housing Committee that oversees his accommodations said that should end once the work on the Simplot home is complete.
“I’m not going to give it to him, if he can live in the new house, if the Simplot house is habitable and has a working refrigerator and beds,” said Rep. Phylis King, D-Boise, a member of the committee. “If we spend that quarter of a million on that home, I don’t believe he will continue to get his stipend.”
Sen. Brad Little, R-Emmett and another member of the committee, committed only to consider the issue.
Jon Hanian, Otter’s spokesman, said the stipend was a legislative issue.
“It’s never been really discussed as a place for this governor to live,” Hanian said. “The context has been, using this residence as a place to entertain visiting heads of state or for fundraisers for things like the Meth Project, to do presentation to CEOs or other philanthropic interests.”