Stenberg says spending doubled under Bruning’s reign
State Treasurer Don Stenberg is joining state Democrats in hammering Attorney General Jon Bruning for presiding over an office whose budget has nearly doubled in his eight years at the helm.
State Treasurer and U.S. Senate candidate Don Stenberg
The state Democratic Party bought full-page newspaper ads this week to cajole Bruning for a myriad of perceived transgressions, including the growth of his department’s budget by what they said was 81 percent.
Today Stenberg jumped on the bandwagon, tweeting that “after crunching the numbers,” he discovered Bruning’s budget has actually increased 96 percent — rising from $4.94 million when Stenberg left to a $9.7 million appropriation this year.
Stenberg helpfully tweeted a chart that indicates when he was attorney general from 1991 to 2003, spending only increased 34 percent, for an average annual increase of 3 percent. That compares to an average annual increase of 12 percent under Bruning. So there.
Way to get your Tweet on, Stenberg! (whose Twitter profile describes him as a “genuine, lifelong conservative” candidate… yes, that was a dig at you, Bruning).
Winterized 
No wonder Stenberg’s claiming his spending was low, all the money he spent on outside legal counsel was off his books being run through other departments. The low level nuclear waste case alone cost tens of millions. Bruning moved all the outside counsel into his budget accurately reflecting the true expenditures.
Bruning has needed the increase in the AG budget to pay for all the self-serving “public service announcements” he has inundated us with since the first time he got elected. Basically he has made US pay for his campaign materials.
You mean like the recent radio ads, ‘Hi I’m Don Stenberg, come to my State Fair booth to get your unclaimed property.’
Stenberg is the guy who spent $20 million on outside counsel in the low level radioactive waste case, saying he had a conflict because he was running for Senate? And buried a bunch of his office spending in other agencies budgets? C’mon . . .