Dan Patrick rails against spending as state drops thousands on his office upgrades

Texas Lieutenant Gov. Dan Patrick has spent much of his career railing against excessive government spending, but a review of receipts shows he approved of thousands being spent on renovations and repairs to his office.

The receipts are from the Texas State Preservation Board, the body responsible for maintaining the Texas Capitol and other sites of historic importance. The board is chaired by various Texas officials including Patrick and Gov. Greg Abbott. 

Physical offices under the purview of the Texas State Preservation Board can make requests for repairs and renovations. The board fulfills those requests and logs invoices for the work performed. The board’s website explicitly states that officeholders are ultimately responsible for funding modifications to their offices.

Between 2017 and 2021, the Texas State Preservation Board spent more than $2,300 on various projects in Patrick’s office including cleaning chandeliers, installing artwork, renovating a rostrum, and repairing a trash can. 

The receipt for the chandelier cleaning is dated Nov. 21, 2021. It specifically states that a crystal chandelier was cleaned by hand in the lieutenant governor’s office. It cost $850. 

A receipt dated June 2017 states $300 was spent to “install artwork in Capitol Lt. Gov. office.” 

Patrick is a self-described fiscal conservative who said reigning in wasteful government spending was an urgent concern.

“Setting a strong fiscal foundation is one of my top priorities,” Patrick said in a 2022 social media post. “That’s why I passed a spending cap to ensure the state budget cannot grow more than population times the rate of inflation.”

Patrick’s anti-spending rhetoric dates back to when he first ran for Lieutenant Governor.

“As #txltgov I will cut wasteful state government spending, eliminate job-killing regulations,” he said in a 2014 social media post.

In 2021, the Texas State Preservation Board spent $7,500 to build at least 44 custom picture frames for Patrick’s official portrait. It is unclear what the framed portraits were for.

Spokespeople for Patrick and the Texas State Board of Preservation did not immediately respond to questions for this story.