Good Morning,
Welcome back to the second issue of the Treasurer’s Newsletter from the Office of State Treasurer Don Stenberg. Thanks for signing up to receive this regular newsletter by email and please encourage your friends and family to do so as well. Your interest in the work of this important Nebraska Constitutional office encourages us to do our best to manage our state’s financial resources and meet the needs of its residents.
As always, we look forward to your visits to our office suite in Room 2005 of the State Capitol. Among our most recent visitors were 17 student members of the Madison Youth Leadership Council and their sponsors and teachers, Mike Sunderman and Jim Crilly, from Madison High School. The student leaders asked thoughtful questions and expressed interest in the workings of state government and the experiences of political leaders.
Since you last heard from our office, State Treasurer Stenberg has traveled through central and western Nebraska, conducting news conferences and media interviews in Grand Island, Kearney, Lexington, and North Platte. At these events, he spoke of his proposal to trim the State Treasurer’s Office budget by 13 percent over the next two fiscal years and he encouraged other elected officials to do the same. His message was met with both surprise and gratitude. You can read more about his remarks below.
Your comments and suggestions about the State Treasurer’s Office and our newsletter are welcome. You may contact us by phone at 402-471-2455 or you may reply to this email newsletter. You can also learn more about our office through our website, www.treasurer.org, and on our Facebook Page.
Below are highlights of Treasurer Stenberg’s latest announcements:
In addition to the familiar Andersons and Johnsons and Petersons who populate Nebraska’s 93 counties, some other big names are showing up in the 2011 list of unclaimed property owners, to be published in 16 Nebraska newspapers in March and April.
There are institutions of higher learning, major health care centers, banks and insurance companies, public and private entities, and the biggest businesses in the state, as well as hotels, restaurants, doctors’ offices, and ordinary citizens. In all, the Unclaimed Property Division of the Nebraska State Treasurer’s Office is holding property valued at more than $100 million for more than 350,000 Nebraskans or former Nebraskans.
“One of my priorities as State Treasurer is to return unclaimed property to its rightful owners. I encourage all Nebraskans to look for their names in our newspaper publication or check our website at www.treasurer.org,” State Treasurer Don Stenberg said.
Click here to read full article.“On Thursday, March 10, 2011, I will ask the Appropriations Committee of the Nebraska Legislature, to cut my budget by over $700,000 next fiscal year and nearly $1.4 million over the next two fiscal years. The current appropriation for the operating budget of the State Treasurer is $5,452,759. I will recommend to the Appropriations Committee that my budget for the next fiscal year be reduced to $4,746,080 - a reduction of $706,679 or 13 percent.
"Many politicians say they are in favor of cutting government spending, but most of them never actually do it.”
More than $135,000 in unclaimed property was returned to its rightful owners last week, the first week after publication of the 2011 Unclaimed Property report in the Omaha World-Herald and the Scottsbluff Star-Herald, according to State Treasurer Don Stenberg.
“One of my priorities as State Treasurer is to return as much unclaimed property as possible to its rightful owners. We are continuing to work to achieve that goal,” Stenberg said.
