RELATED ISSUES
Pelosi's New Office -- Costing taxpayers $18,736 per month
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's new San Francisco office costs taxpayers nearly twice as much as any other rented by a member of Congress, according to a new study.
Pelosi was paying $4,300 a month for her office near San Francisco's City Hall until last fall, when she moved to a new 18-story federal building a few blocks away -- where the rent is $18,736 a month, an increase of more than four times.
[emphasis added]
As Speaker of the House, it is claimed that she needs the extra room and greater security provided by her new residence. Rent for her new office, at $224,832 per year, is more than her salary as Speaker. “Pelosi earned $223,500 as Speaker — supplemented by $102,000 in book royalties,” according to a recent AP article, focusing on a new congressional financial report released Wednesday.
If the price paid doesn’t agitate voters, perhaps the fact that she paid over market value will. This fact led one reporter to exclaim “Pelosi was ripped off” (albeit, actually, it’s the taxpayers that will foot the bill). “You would really have to work hard to pay $73 a square foot in this market,” said tenant rep broker, Frank Fudem, to SF Business Times. “You would really have to scour the top floors of the very best buildings.”
“There are high security buildings in this town where it is hard for the public to get in,” he said, which is obviously a plus for the speaker. It’s bad enough she’s expected to answer the public’s mail, which we know she isn't too fond of. The last thing she wants is to encourage visits from her constituents.
Using perfect Pelosi logic, her press secretary emphasized the green aspects of the building, saying that it consumes "less than half the power of a standard office tower, saving taxpayer funds on utility costs." Needless to say, reasoning like this only stands to infuriate more voters.
