It seems that the Queen’s spending has become too big for her publicly supported britches!
Queen Elizabeth II and the royal family cost British taxpayers $1.14 each last year!
Not too bad until you realize the the cost of the family totaled to $68.6 million this year, which increased by $2.48 million from the previous year.
Public funds are used to pay travel expenses, along with the operation and staffing of homes in the royal family, including Buckingham Palace.
Travel costs rose this year as royal family needed to charter commercial aircraft for overseas visits.
We’re sure they don’t travel light either!!!!
The Queen visited Slovenia and Slovakia last year, while Prince Charles toured countries including Japan and Indonesia.
Also, it cost $661,302 to relaunch the royal family’s Web site along with hiring a staff to run it!
We wonder how much the Queen checks the royal email?!
“Very obviously they have no regard for public finances at all. There’s no reason why the queen can’t be paid a salary and a few million be spent on the staff,” said Graham Smith, campaign manager for Republic, an anti-monarchy group.
The accounts showed that cleaning royal homes cost $496,000, food bills ran to $827,209 and garden parties cost a total of $661,302.
Elizabeth receives $13.09 million of public money each year to pay for basics, but she used an extra $9.9 million from a reserve fund.
The Queen will negotiate her budget again in 2010, but if she continues to use money from her reserve fund at the current rate, she’ll run out of funds by 2012!
If the people are on a budget, so should the monarch!
[Image via WENN/Photo Pool/Anwar Hussein Collection.]
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