(The Center Square) – The Joint Finance Committee on Wednesday added 42 new Assistant District Attorney positions and awarded one-time raises for assistant and deputy DAs to help combat rising courtroom backlog in the state.
The committee also passed funding for the State Public Defender’s office, which would add 12.5 positions to address workload and timeliness in Wisconsin’s judicial system.
The budget investments would cost more than $17.5 million over the next two years if passed.
“These ADAs will help process cases and deliver swift justice,” Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Oconto said in a statement after the meeting. “I’m happy to have guided these initiatives through the budget committee, and thank my colleagues for their support.”
However, the motion does not fund 28.5 federally-funded staff positions in attorney offices throughout the state, which would eventually expire.
While some of the cut positions would be replaced by the 42 newly added ones, Democrats objected that counties like Milwaukee and Dane Counties – which received no new positions in the motion – would get no replacements for the staff they’re losing.
“Given that we have positions that are gonna be eliminated under this motion, I don’t think that it’s necessarily fair to say that this is gonna be preserving safety throughout the state,” said Rep. Tip McGuire, D-Kenosha. “We’re gonna be increasing need in a lot of different counties.”
Brown County would receive seven new ADA positions, Waukesha County would receive six and and Fond du Lac County would receive four.
At the end of 2024, Brown County had 2,812 pending felony criminal cases according to a statewide caseload summary.
The total backlog in the county, including felonies, misdemeanors and criminal traffic cases, was 4,677.
“The Brown County court system has faced a serious case backlog for several years, primarily due to staffing shortages,” Rep. Shae Sortwell, R-Two Rivers, previously said in a statement. “This can lead to a myriad of issues, such as overworked judges and DAs, unprosecuted crime, and hearing delays.”
ADAs, Deputy DAs, and State Public Defenders across the state would receive one-time pay raises totaling to $6 million over the next two years.
However, Sen. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, criticized the lack of funding for Milwaukee and Dane Counties and “commensurate” investment between the 42 new ADAs but only 12.5 new SPDs, arguing it could lead to further backlog.
“You can have prosecutors charging and charging all day, but if you don’t have defense attorneys, people are gonna languish in jail, these cases are gonna continue to sit there and not get resolved, and we’re gonna see that backlog increase,” Roys said.
Overall Roys called the motion a “nod in the right direction” but said it still fell short, especially when coupled with the pending cuts to federally funded staff.
But to committee co-chairman Rep. Mark Born, the investments in ADAs in certain counties and SPDs to a lesser amount were necessary according to the Wisconsin District Attorneys Association analysis he had read.
“When people ask ‘Why didn’t Milwaukee get any?’ Because the analysis doesn’t show that,” Born said, arguing that because there are around 400 total DAs and ADAs in the state, 42 new ADAs would be a “massive” increase.
“What other agency are we giving a 10% increase in their workforce?” Born said.
The motion passed 11–3 along party lines.
