This may not be of any interest, but we’ve been doing a lot of royal coverage lately, and I found this piece of news fascinating. Buckingham Palace released their account information to the general public a few days ago. You see, the Queen and her family (minus Prince Charles – I’ll get to him in a minute) are funded by the British taxpayers, and the taxpayers like to know just how much they’re spending on the Queen’s corgis, hats and whatever Prince Edward needs to get him through the night. This year’s total expenditures: £38.2 million (roughly $58 million) for fiscal year 2009-2010. Sounds like a lot, right? It was actually a 7.9% drop, which was accounted for by some royal belt-tightening, as well as the Queen deigning to pull some £6.5 million from her own private account. It still sounds like a lot though – until you do some figuring and realize that when all is said and done, the royals cost each and every single British citizen 94 cents. Less than a dollar per citizen for the royal family! That’s kind of a bargain.

The Queen and the Royal Family cost the taxpayer 62p per person last year – a drop of 7p, Buckingham Palace accounts showed. The total cost of keeping the monarchy decreased by £3.3 million (7.9 per cent) to £38.2 million during the 2009-10 financial year.

A spokesman said the fall equated to a drop in real terms of 12.2 per cent and was mainly due to a reduction in commercial charter flights and a refund of lease rentals from the Queen’s helicopter, which was replaced last year.

Palace accounts also showed that the Queen dipped into a reserve fund to boost her Civil List by £6.5 million in 2009. This is the highest amount ever drawn from the reserve, which comes from surplus Civil List money accumulated in the 1990s.

Sir Alan Reid, Keeper of the Privy Purse, said: “The Royal Household is acutely aware of the difficult economic climate and took early action to reduce its Civil List expenditure by 2.5 per cent in real terms in 2009. We are implementing a headcount freeze and reviewing every vacancy to see if we can avoid replacement. Property services funding will be reduced by £0.5 million this year.”

“Work will continue on assessing the condition of the Estate, but it is acknowledged that the necessary cuts in public expenditure will have an impact on the backlog of essential maintenance which it is hoped can be addressed in the longer term. In the meantime, the Household is continuing to pursue opportunities to reduce costs and generate income from the Estate’s assets, including commercial lettings and management charges.”

The total cost of the Queen’s Civil List – which pays for the running of the Royal Household including staff salaries – was £14.2 million in 2009, up £300,000. It was made up of £7.9 million from the Government and £6.5 million from the reserve.

If the Queen continues drawing on the reserve at the current rate, she is expected to run out of funds by the start of 2012 – the year of her Diamond Jubilee. The current deal for the Civil List – which gives the Queen £7.9 million a year – was agreed by then prime minister Sir John Major in 1990.

It had been thought the Queen would request an increase but Chancellor George Osborne announced as part of his Budget last month that it will remain frozen at £7.9 million for the coming year. Mr Osborne said the Queen had given her full agreement to the decision to freeze the sum. He added that “a new means of consolidated support” would be proposed at a later date.

[From The Telegraph]

Oh, I was going to mention Prince Charles – he doesn’t get any money from the “the taxpayers” – at least, not for his general upkeep. Charles has his own income from the Duke of Cornwall estate (it’s one of his titles). Through that, he owns extensive property and farms and rentals and his own line of organic food. The Duchy of Cornwall brings in millions of dollars, for real. Now, one thing that I don’t believe is figured into all of this accounting is security – I think there’s a secondary accounting chart for the guards and detectives and personal security various royals get. And that gets very expensive.

I would totally give a dollar to have a little queen. I want my dollar to go towards hats. Or corgis. Or jewel polish. I’ll let the Queen decide!

Queen Elizabeth on July 5, 2010 (in Canada) & June 19, 2010 (with the Duke, in England). Credit: WENN.