Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity has agreed to pay the roughly $1 million bill for security upgrades at the private home of her political rival, Gov. Josh Shapiro, in the face of possible litigation.
Garrity, a Republican whose office oversees the government coffers, had previously blocked state payments to the vendors, claiming Shapiro did not follow the correct process in hiring them to work at his Montgomery County home. On June 30, she announced her office would compensate these three companies, even though she still believes the governor “cut corners” in the contracting process.
“Unfortunately, my approval of these settlement payments is necessary to prevent costly litigation that the Commonwealth would likely lose to the vendors who completed more than $1 million of work at the Governor’s home without any payment authority,” Garrity, a Republican who is running against Shapiro for governor, said in a statement.
The treasury is making the payments under a settlement agreement approved by Attorney General Dave Sunday, whose office also expressed concern that the governor’s administration skipped steps in ordering the security upgrades.
In a letter about the settlement agreement, representatives of the attorney general’s office said the contractors still deserve to be reimbursed for the work they’ve completed, and they approved the payments on a one-time basis.
What led to Shapiro home’s upgrades?
Shapiro’s administration says it started pursuing safety improvements at his private home at the recommendation of Pennsylvania State Police, which conducted a security review after a 2025 arson at the governor’s official mansion in Harrisburg.
In that attack, a man crept onto the property in the dead of night, smashed windows and set the building ablaze while the governor and his family were sleeping upstairs.
Shapiro and his family escaped unharmed, but in the attack’s aftermath, state officials have worked to understand how the breach happened and to harden security.
Garrity and Sunday, both Republicans, say they support efforts to ensure the safety of the governor and his family but disagree with the process the administration used for the project at his personal home.
What has Shapiro said?
Shapiro has noted that his administration asked the Pennsylvania State Ethics Commission to review the security upgrades at his home and found that the project did not create a conflict of interest. He has also suggested that politics is at play in the controversy around these safety improvements.
“I think that’s pretty shameful to try and score a cheap political point at the expense of my family’s safety, but that speaks to their character, not mine,” Shapiro said in December 2025.
The governor’s administration cited emergency provisions to bypass normal procurement procedures in the security upgrades, according to Sunday’s office. However, the attorney general’s staff concluded that these special rules do not empower state agencies to push forward with work at a private residence.
“Current procurement law does not account for the increasing reality of threats to public officers and their families,” deputies from the attorney general’s office wrote. “Because the law does not allow for public funding of construction on private residences, (Garrity) had no legal option other than to deny payment.”
Shapiro officials should have asked the Pennsylvania General Assembly to approve the spending before proceeding with the work, the attorney general’s office argued, adding that state lawmakers should adopt a consistent policy for handling similar situations going forward.
