(The Center Square) – The new Wisconsin biennial budget, if passed, would fund 12.5 new assistant district attorney positions for Milwaukee County, provide funds for the county’s state highway patrol and allow the county to appropriate 100% of its traffic fine revenues.
However, the budget includes no direct funds for the planned $500 million Milwaukee courthouse, a key priority of county officials.
County officials said they have long wanted state aid for Milwaukee’s highway patrolling, since they are one of the only counties required to fund their own patrols without reimbursement.
“We are hopeful that there will be legislative support to help address the significant public safety needs within Milwaukee County,” a spokesperson for Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley previously told The Center Square. “Importantly, Milwaukee County provides a variety of unique, mandated public safety services that no other county is required to provide, including patrolling state and federal highways within the county.”
While new budget wouldn’t provide direct state aid for Milwaukee’s patrols, it would transfer segregated funds and allow the county to appropriate money from its own traffic fine revenues.
According to Omnibus Motion 130, the base funding of roughly $1 million for Milwaukee’s expressway policing aids would be increased by $18 million in 2025-26 and $20 million in 2026-27.
The motion also allows Milwaukee County to retain 100% of fine and forfeiture revenues from violations of state traffic laws, and requires that those revenues be deposited into a segregated account that can only be used for “purposes related to the operation of the district attorney’s office.”
However, because current law mandates 50% of traffic fines to go to the county and 50% to go to the Common School Fund, the motion would cause the Common School Fund to lose its 50% share, which the budget estimates to be $2.2 million annually.
The budget adds 12.5 new Assistant DAs to help with Milwaukee’s courtroom backlog, funded from the fines and forfeitures collected by the county.
Assistant DAs were another point of contention on the Joint Finance Committee, with Democrats previously criticizing Republicans for adopting a motion to add 42 new attorney positions to the state but none for Milwaukee or Dane Counties, The Center Square reported.
While Brown County received the most new assistant DA positions – seven – in the previous motion, Milwaukee County’s 12.5 new positions would take the lead under the new budget, becoming the top recipient of assistant DAs in the state.
Although Gov. Tony Evers had proposed $25 million to be invested in the new Milwaukee courthouse over the biennium, the initiative was not taken up in the current budget.
The budget is set to be voted on by the full state Senate and Assembly today before it can be sent to Evers’ desk.
