7 Perks Pennsylvania Governors Get That Taxpayers Pay For
Pennsylvania keeps a full-time chef whose job posting includes catering for up to 70 guests at a time.
It’s a state job, salary and all.
That’s just one line on a longer bill the commonwealth picks up to keep a governor housed and fed.
These are the perks Pennsylvania governors get that taxpayers have to pay for.
Note: This is general information, not legal advice. Salaries, security spending, and other figures described here are set by Pennsylvania law and the state budget process, and are subject to change.
1. Salary That Rises on Autopilot
Pennsylvania’s governor doesn’t have to ask anyone for a raise.
A 1995 law ties the salary to the Consumer Price Index for the Philadelphia area, and it adjusts automatically every January.
No vote needed.
Gov. Josh Shapiro’s pay rose to $253,870 for 2026, up from $245,760 the year before.
That makes him the highest-paid governor in the country, ahead of New York’s and California’s governors alike.
Why the Raise Never Needs a Vote
Pennsylvania’s 1995 salary law skips the part where lawmakers vote on the governor’s raise every year.
Instead, the state checks how much consumer prices rose across the Philadelphia area each fall, and that percentage becomes next January’s increase.
The same formula lifts pay for more than 1,300 officials, from legislators to judges, so the governor’s raise isn’t a special carve-out.
2. Rent-Free 29,000-Square-Foot Mansion
Pennsylvania also hands its governor a home, free of any rent or mortgage.
The Governor’s Residence sits on Front Street in Harrisburg, a Georgian-style, state-owned house the commonwealth built for about $2 million in the late 1960s.
Taxpayers footed that too.
At nearly 29,000 square feet, it’s more than 13 times the size of a typical new American home.
About $6.4 million went into restoring the residence after an arson attack damaged it in April 2025.
The state has asked for $16.9 million more in security upgrades that insurance won’t cover.
3. Full-Time Household Staff
Pennsylvania staffs the governor’s mansion with its own kitchen and household crew, not just the keys.
Commonwealth job listings show a paid Executive Residence Director and an Executive Chef on the state payroll.
Two full-time hires.
The chef’s post is a classified state position, and its posting covers menu planning, kitchen management, and catering events for up to 70 guests at a time.
It’s a paid government job, not a volunteer post.
4. Round-the-Clock Protection From State Police
Pennsylvania protects its governor the same way it protects the Capitol, around the clock.
The State Police’s Executive Services Office guards the governor, the lieutenant governor, and both of their families, at the residence and on the road.
A legislative budget report counted roughly two dozen troopers on the detail as of 2019.
State police won’t say how many work it today.
Every trooper on that detail still draws a paycheck from the same force.
Salaries, not favors.
The same unit travels with the governor by car and plane, doing advance security work at each destination.
Psst! How much do you know about Pennsylvania’s governors? Take our quiz and see how many you can get right.
Quiz
Pennsylvania Governor IQ
Answer these questions on Pennsylvania’s governors, past and present. We bet you can’t get them all right. Prove us wrong?
Has Pennsylvania ever elected a woman as governor?
5. Security Upgrades at the Governor's Private Home
Pennsylvania's protection for its governor doesn't stop at the official residence.
No exceptions there.
After the 2025 arson attack, state police recommended security upgrades for Gov. Shapiro's own house in Abington, Montgomery County.
Taxpayers are covering nearly $1.1 million of that work, on a house the commonwealth doesn't even own.
The payment stalled.
Treasurer Stacy Garrity blocked the payment in April 2026, saying state procurement rules don't cover work on private property.
The attorney general's office settled it that June: The contractors had done the work in good faith, so taxpayers would pay after all.
State Sen. Jarrett Coleman, whose committee subpoenaed the administration over the spending, said the state's emergency procurement rules limit construction to public property.
He has also said the governor deserves appropriate security protection.
It's a private home, funded on the public's dime.
6. State Aircraft for Official Travel
Pennsylvania owns an executive plane, and its governor gets first call on it.
The Beechcraft King Air 350i seats eight, with inflight Wi-Fi and noise-cancelling technology the manufacturer likes to advertise.
The lieutenant governor, cabinet members, and legislative leaders can book it too, but the governor comes first in line.
In his first year alone, Gov. Shapiro logged almost 150 hours in the air, a bill of roughly $270,000.
Not cheap.
That already topped his predecessor Tom Wolf's busiest year in office, when 77 hours of flight time cost $136,000.
The plane cost taxpayers $410,000 in all that year, the most since 2011.
His flying eased off after that: Logged hours fell to about 116 in 2024, the most recent year reported.
Shapiro also flew on State Police aircraft, and those flights went undisclosed until 2025.
His office agreed to start reporting them after reporters traced the plane through public flight records.
7. Taxpayer-Funded Capitol Office Remodel
Pennsylvania doesn't just pay for where the governor lives.
It also pays for where the governor works.
In 2021, the state approved nearly $1.5 million to renovate the governor's suite inside the Capitol in Harrisburg.
The Capitol Preservation Committee's chairman called the suite the last part of the building that hadn't been extensively renovated in recent decades.
Nothing else came close.
The committee said the renovation was overdue, not optional.
What Private Money Covers
Not every dollar Pennsylvania spends on the Governor's Residence comes from taxpayers.
A nonprofit called Team Pennsylvania pays for some of the residence's furniture, art, and decor through a preservation fund built entirely from private donations.
That fund held about $324,000 at the end of 2023, and Team Pennsylvania won't say who gave the money or what the whole project cost.
Security fixes and structural repairs still fall to the state, no matter how much private money flows through the fund.
The décor is private.
The upkeep never is.
How Pennsylvania Compares to Other States
Pennsylvania isn't alone in giving its governor a house.
Forty-five states provide an official governor's residence, and only five don't: Arizona, Idaho, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
Pennsylvania's setup looks fairly typical on paper: A state-owned home plus a state police detail, the same combination many governors get.
Nothing unusual there.
What sets Pennsylvania apart right now is the paycheck, since the governor's salary alone outpaces every other governor in the country.
California's Gavin Newsom earns $245,929, a little under $8,000 below what Shapiro is paid for 2026.
The average governor nationally earns $171,479, according to Business Insider's tally, which puts Shapiro's 2026 salary more than $82,000 above that norm.
10 Pennsylvania Yard Sale Rules Sellers Break Without Realizing
Fines for the exact same yard sale mistake range from $50 in one Pennsylvania township to $1,000 in another, depending only on which side of the line the folding tables sit.
Pennsylvania has no single, statewide yard sale law, so every township writes its own, and many sellers never check.
10 Pennsylvania Yard Sale Rules Sellers Break Without Realizing
7 Pennsylvania Fair Foods That Sound Wrong but Taste Right
Pennsylvania's county fairs run all summer, from the Poconos to the New York state line, and every one of them serves food whose name gets your order wrong before you've had a single bite.
Nobody explains the menu at the counter, so you either know or you find out the hard way.
