FRANKFORT, Ky., Feb. 14 (UPI) -- Officials say the state of Kentucky could save about $300,000 by turning the lieutenant governor's mansion in Frankfort into a museum or meeting house.
State Finance Secretary Robbie Rudolph says a two-year controversy over the 207-year-old Old Governor's Mansion could be resolved by paying Lt. Gov. Steve Pence a $30,000 a year housing allowance to live elsewhere.
Kentucky's governors lived in the restored mansion until 1914 and lieutenant governors since 1956. The savings would come from laying off a full-time, four-person staff and ending around the clock security.
"There's no doubt it would be very prestigious to have a mansion to entertain your friends and family and constituents and be able to have events there," Pence told the Louisville Courier-Journal. He lives in Louisville and commutes to Frankfort.
A proposal to give the lieutenant governor a $12,000 housing stipend died in Kentucky's Legislature last year.
