Mexico may be in the early stages of a new age of government austerity but that hasn’t stopped every lawmaker in the Mexico City Congress from getting their very own iPad.

The tablet computers were installed at every desk in the Mexico City Legislative Assembly yesterday and will be used for a range of congressional duties including voting.

The Apple iPad that each of the 66 deputies will have at his or her disposal costs about 7,000 pesos (US $367) or more, meaning they have a combined value of at least 462,000 pesos (US $24,200).

But according to the newspaper El Universal, it is not publicly known when or where the tablets were purchased.

The newly-elected lawmakers also received gold-plated tie pins, leather document folders and card holders last month with a combined value of almost 227,000 pesos (US $11,900), El Universal said.

Mexico City’s new mayor, Claudia Sheinbaum, will take office later this year after winning almost 50% of the vote in the July 1 elections.

She, like president-elect López Obrador, represented the leftist Morena party, which campaigned on a platform of ending corruption and impunity and implementing wide-reaching austerity measures.

Both houses of federal Congress, in which the coalition led by Morena now has majorities, have already moved to implement a range of cost-cutting measures.

Morena Senator Martí Batres also launched a so-called Tupper Challenge last month to encourage lawmakers to bring their own lunch to work in order to cut down on Senate expenses.

Once in the nation’s top job, López Obrador has said he will earn 60% less than current President Peña Nieto and has also pledged to sell the presidential plane, largely forgo personal security and convert the presidential residence into an arts and culture center.

Source: El Universal (sp)