Is it necessary for public servants to have citizen financed mansions? Couldn’t their private security protect them at their own homes?
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This was the case for most states prior to the Civil War. Governors found their own housing, and sometimes were compensated if they had to move to the capital city.
However, as the country grew, government became more extensive. Some states began to set aside special housing for their chief executives to make it easier for government officials, dignitaries, lobbyists, journalists, and citizens to meet with the governor or their staff immediately upon taking office. This made orderly transition of power considerably simpler. Once this started, other states didn’t want to seem provincial or unimportant, so nearly every state founded one. Over time, they became larger and more multipurpose, and sometimes more grand to reflect the importance of the executive power.
In the modern era, the needs of security are added to to the needs of convenience and most states prefer to house its governor in a ready-to-run facility. Some states, however, no longer maintain an official residence.
> Is it necessary for public servants to have citizen-financed mansions?
No, but it is convenient. The executive residence is typically a place near the capitol, and while it does contain living quarters, it will generally will also have official offices, reception rooms for officially receiving guests, and similar things which allow an executive to do their job, not just relax in opulent splendor. They are functional buildings, and they provide an easy access to the capitol for somebody who might otherwise live hundreds of miles from it.
> Couldn’t their private security protect them at their own homes?
Uh… what private security? Not everyone who runs for office can afford that sort of thing. If you make it an unofficial requirement that they do so, you’ve then essentially said you cannot run for governor without being able to pay for that – especially as many gubernatorial salaries do not provide enough money to pay for such a thing.
partly, its just eaiser to have an “offical” house that can be purpose built to be secure, as opposed to security having to up an move every few years and work out how to secure some random house in a random neighbourhood (and any security measures would likely annoy the neighbours, which is bad PR)
also, much like in the White House, a lot of that “mansion” is office space so the governor can fulfil his role in government. office rooms for the governors staff, briefing and conference rooms, a large hall to host events, etc.
The US states are kinda large and spread out. You are assuming that the governor originally lives near or in the capital city (usually the administrative and legislative center of the state). Why would that be true? And it would be rather difficult if ALL of these functions moved to where the governor lived every few years if/when a new governor is elected.
Then there are events that the governors host on behalf of the state.
And security is more than simply the protection of the person. There will be a lot of sensitive information stored, and moving into and out of the governor’s residence. So there also needs to be guards against espionage, power backups, evacuation routes etc etc involved. These are expensive to set up.
Finally, it isn’t always true that governors are multimillionaires who live in mansions prior to becoming governor.
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