Published: August 12, 2009 11:40 am      

Gov. Rick Perry claims residence in 2 places

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Gov. Rick Perry lives, works and votes in Austin. But he also claims to be a resident of College Station, Texas, where he owns a house and gets a tax break designed for local homeowners, records obtained by The Associated Press show.

Perry aides said the governor is entitled to claim a house he owns in College Station as his primary residence, even though he lives in a mansion in Austin and is asking voters to keep him in the state capital for the next four years. But after inquiries from The AP late Tuesday, Perry's re-election campaign said he may have to refund some of the tax break he got.

Aides were scrambling Tuesday to figure out whether rent payments that Perry and his wife received for the property would require them to claim a smaller homestead exemption than they would normally get. Perry's daughter, Texas A&M student Sydney Perry, lives in the home and has roommates that pay rent to the family, officials said.

No one disputes that Perry has made Austin his official home since 1991, after he was elected agriculture commissioner. After becoming governor in 2000, Perry moved into the Texas governor's mansion. In 2007, Perry moved into a rental mansion in a posh Austin suburb so the historic downtown building could be renovated. Taxpayers are footing the $9,000-a-month tab for the rental home.

That same year, the Republican governor and his wife, Anita, bought a 2,500-square-foot house in College Station, near the Texas A&M University campus. Perry signed a form in January 2007 saying that the house was his "principal residence homestead." Perry has spent time in the home but has never lived there.

According to definitions published by the state comptroller, homeowners must reside in their homestead on Jan. 1 of the year they claim the exemption. And if the homeowners move away, they can continue to claim a homestead exemption if they "intend to return to the home and ... are away less than two years."

Brazos County Chief Appraiser Mark Price said Perry's exemption was granted based on his 2007 application, which stated that the house would be the governor's "principal residence homestead" on Jan. 1, 2008.

"He declared it as his primary residence," Price said.

Perry faces a tough Republican primary battle against rival Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, but he is telling voters he wants to stay in Austin as governor for the next four years. His spokesman, Mark Miner, said Perry intends to live in College Station after his service as governor ends and is entitled to the homestead exemption.

"It's the only house the governor owns and he intends to live there after he serves as governor," Miner said.

What's not clear is whether Perry claimed the proper exemption amount. Homeowners are not supposed to claim a Texas homestead exemption on rental property. So Miner said the Perrys may have to lower the amount of the tax break they received to offset some of the rent paid by Sydney Perry's roommates.

He said Perry representatives got in touch with Brazos County appraisers after The AP made inquiries to determine whether rent payments would "affect the size of the homestead exemption."

Texas homeowners are entitled to a $15,000 homestead exemption on their primary residence for school property taxes. So the owner of a $100,000 house, for example, would pay school taxes on $85,000 instead of $100,000. In Perry's case, his house in College Station was valued at $243,900 in 2009, but he only owed school taxes on $228,900.

At that rate, Perry saved about $350 over the last two years on his school tax bill.