Clinton's rent jumps $100,000
Office space to cost more than $800,000 a year, sources say
WASHINGTON, Feb. 5 - The cost for former President Clinton's Manhattan
office space has soared past $800,000, more than $100,000 higher than
originally reported, sources familiar with the negotiations told NBC News on
Monday.
GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION officials told Republican
congressional staff members at a private meeting Monday that the lease had
ballooned because of additional "surcharges" added by Carnegie Towers.
Two sources told NBC News that security and management costs and
parking fees were responsible for the increase in rent on the 56th floor of
Carnegie Towers, which Clinton wants to rent in its entirety.
The meeting was arranged in response to a letter Rep. Ernest Istook,
R-Okla., sent to the GSA requesting exact figures for the price to
taxpayers. Earlier reports put the cost of Clinton's post-presidential
offices at $650,000 to $700,000 a year, which Istook called "inexcusable."
Questions were raised last week about the cost of Clinton's offices
and about gifts he and his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., took
with them when they left Washington after Clinton's term ended last month.
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The former president said in a statement Friday that his private foundation
would pick up $300,000 of the annual cost of the offices, and he said Monday
that he and his wife would return any gifts the government determined were
cataloged inaccurately. |
