A vacancy in the state Consumer Advocate’s office highlights a growing problem in state government: bosses often make less than their underlings do. State Consumer Advocate Gary Stewart just stepped down to become a staff attorney — and his salary jumped by seven thousand dollars. The Attorney General’s looking for Stewart’s replacement, and Bob Brammer, a spokesman for the A-G, says it’ll be difficult unless the salary is hiked. Brammer says it’s hard to ask a person to make such a sacrifice to do public work.Representative Lance Horbach of Tama heads the committee which reviews the Attorney General’s budget, and he says the A-G will have to cut somewhere else to raise that salary. He says he hopes the A-G will make it a priority to find the money in the budget.Horbach says it’s hard to find managers in the department of corrections, too, because supervisors often earn significantly less than their subordinates.
