(The Center Square) – Taxpayer-funded upgrades to elected officials’ homes should require liens on the properties, according to a potential bill floated among Senate lawmakers for support.
The idea comes one week after Republicans in the upper chamber issued multiple subpoenas to Gov. Josh Shapiro in search of more information about $1.1 million security upgrades at his private home after a man set fire to his official residence in Harrisburg in April.
“We can all agree that taxpayer funded security upgrades are often vital to keep elected officials safe, especially our state’s chief executive and his family,” said Sen. Kristin Phillips Hill, R-Jacobus, in a cosponsorship memo that began circulating Tuesday. “However, when those upgrades happen to a private residence, taxpayers deserve to know what they are paying for and to know that it will come back to the state should the property be sold.”
The residence in question is the governor’s family home in Abington outside of Philadelphia. Senate Republicans say the subpoenas came after “months of stonewalling and incomplete responses from state agencies and local officials.”
Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Christopher Paris was also subpoenaed for a copy of the May 2025 independent security assessment made of the Abington residence. It also requests “contracts, invoices and communications related to construction and security work at the governor’s private home and a neighboring property.”
Body camera footage from officers on the property between Sep. 20 and Nov. 19 was also requested from the Pennsylvania State Police.
A third subpoena was sent to Abington Township for communications, permits, applications, and hearing transcripts involving the construction.
Phillips-Hill wants upgrades like this to mandate a lien on the property worth the same amount of taxpayer funds used – in this case, $1.1 million – that would only be triggered by a sale or transfer.
“This mechanism ensures that the public interest is preserved and prevents a private property owner from realizing a tax-funded increase in property value without providing a reasonable method for cost recoupment back to the state,” she wrote.
In addition to work done in Abington, $32 million was spent to repair and update the governor’s mansion, which was badly damaged in the fire.
Another subpoena was issued to Let’s Go Air, Inc. for charter flights taken from Jan. 14 to 16 of this year. The request appears to be unrelated to the others but in line with ongoing scrutiny of Shapiro’s travel by Sen. Jarrett Coleman, R-Allentown.
For his part, the governor has said that the requests amount to little more than political games.
