Pennsylvania's governor-elect, Tom Wolf, plans to use his own money to rent office space for state police security officers while they are guarding him at his private residence, where he plans to live as governor, a transition team spokesman said this week.
Wolf's transition team is not saying how much the Democrat will pay for the office space. Wolf's transition team spokesman, Jeffrey Sheridan, would only say that Wolf will pay "full market value."
Decades of governors have lived at the governor's official residence along the Susquehanna River in Harrisburg, where there is office space for the security team to work. But Wolf prefers to live at his residence in Mount Wolf, about 20 miles south of Harrisburg.
It is the latest example of how Wolf has been willing to use his wealth or outside fundraising to shoulder his expenses.
On Tuesday, his transition team announced that he would raise money from outside sources to pay for the cost of the transition. All donations will be publicly disclosed and capped at $50,000, his transition team said in a statement. Gov. Tom Corbett's budget secretary, Charles Zogby, had previously estimated the cost of the transition to the state would be about $200,000.
Wolf also is not going to accept the governor's salary of nearly $191,000 in 2015. The businessman reported $1.3 million in adjusted gross income in 2013, although the precise sources of that income are not clear because his campaign declined The Associated Press' requests to release Wolf's entire 2013 tax return.
He takes office Jan. 20 after beating Corbett, a Republican, in last month's election.
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The office space Wolf plans to rent is in a building across the street from his home. He once owned the building before donating it to Otterbein United Methodist Church, Sheridan said.
"This is one of those situations where he doesn't want the taxpayers to pay for it, or incur any additional cost," Sheridan said. "It's something he doesn't want to sock the taxpayers with."
Sheridan said he did not know whether the police security team will be allowed inside Wolf's residence while he is there, and a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania State Police said the agency does not reveal such details publicly.
Corbett's press secretary, Jay Pagni, said police security is always on the property at Corbett's home in suburban Pittsburgh when the governor stays overnight there.
