Clinton Has a Happy Landlord

By Stephen M. Silverman

Thursday May 28, 1998 12:00 AM EDT

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Bill Clinton's new 8,300-square-foot Manhattan workspace on the 56th floor of the luxurious Carnegie Towers (adjacent to the landmark concert hall) is said to be costing taxpayers $700,000 a year in rent -- a figure that NBC News calculates as being more than all other former presidents' offices combined. "President Clinton's office space would shatter all previous records for former presidents, who are already living high on the taxpayer tab," Pete Sepp of the National Taxpayers Union told the network. By comparison, Ronald Reagan's Los Angeles office goes for $285,000 a year, George Bush's Houston office for $147,000, Gerald Ford's office near Palm Springs for $99,000 and Jimmy Carter's Atlanta office for a relatively bargain-basement $93,000. "Clinton may well push the envelope into an area where the Congress decides we need to put some limitation on that," Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.), chairman of the House appropriations subcommittee, told NBC. Clinton aides counter by saying that high rents are just a fact of life in New York.