GOP Lawmakers Seek Funding for More Prosecutors

With Wisconsin facing understaffed district attorney offices throughout the state, a handful of lawmakers are pushing for money in the next budget to add prosecutors in counties they represent.

Republicans are backing three separate efforts to add prosecutors in Waukesha, Washington and Brown counties. They’re pushing for the funding in Wisconsin’s state budget, which is currently being rewritten by the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee.

In Waukesha County, there are currently 16 assistant district attorney positions, 10 fewer than recommended in a 2024 Wisconsin Department of Administration analysis. Waukesha County District Attorney Lesli Boese has said the state has not given her office the proper resources to hold criminals accountable.

A budget amendment from eight Republican lawmakers in Waukesha County calls for adding 10.5 assistant district attorney positions there. State Rep. Dan Knodl, R-Germantown, said the ask matches the 2024 analysis and what Boese is asking for.

“It’s really a matter of getting justice done and getting it done in a timely fashion, not only for the victims, but the perpetrators of criminality,” Knodl said.

In a statement he posted to social media, Waukesha County Executive Paul Farrow said he supports the proposal.

“These attorney positions are needed and will help put criminals behind bars,” Farrow wrote in the statement.

A separate budget proposal would add 2.6 assistant district attorney positions in Washington County, where there are currently 6.4 positions. The 2024 DOA analysis recommends an additional 1.6 assistant district attorney positions in that county.

“For years, prosecutors have been working under enormous pressure, handling more cases with fewer resources,” Washington County District Attorney Barry Braatz wrote in a statement about the proposal.

Braatz wrote in the statement that “oversized caseloads” have resulted in “backlogs, longer wait times for trial, delayed justice for victims, and growing frustration among law enforcement and the community.”

Another budget amendment backed by a group of Democratic and Republican lawmakers would add three assistant district attorney positions, two judges and two state public defender support staff positions in Brown County.

State Rep. Shae Sortwell, R-Two Rivers, said at the end of last year, Brown County had nearly 3,000 pending felony criminal cases.

“This is kind of an attempt to try to reduce that and get the court system moving in the right direction in Brown County,” Sortwell said in an interview with WPR.

The state has been dealing with shortages among public defenders and prosecutors for years.

State lawmakers included pay bumps for public defenders, assistant district attorneys, deputy DAs and DAs in Wisconsin’s biennial budget in 2023. The raises brought the new starting pay for assistant DAs, deputy DAs and assistant public defenders to $36 an hour.

That came after the State Bar of Wisconsin said the state’s shortage of public attorneys was approaching a “constitutional crisis.”

The budget amendments will need to be approved by the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee, where Republicans hold a 12-4 advantage. State Rep. Scott Allen, R-Waukesha, said he’s had conversations with members of the committee about Waukesha County’s proposal.

“In my estimation, the principal function of government is public safety, and if we don’t prosecute justice to the way that it needs to be done, we’re not going to be able to achieve that,” Allen said.

Gov. Tony Evers’ 2025-27 budget proposal calls for funding 47 more assistant district attorney positions across the state.

“The Administration indicates that placement of positions would be left to the discretion of the State Prosecutors Office,” the budget proposal summary said.

Evers’ budget would also fund nearly 30 district attorney positions that were previously paid for through federal grants, according to the governor’s office.

The governor’s proposal had also included a provision to allow counties with a population between 200,000 and 750,000 to appoint up to four deputy district attorneys. However, the Joint Finance Committee removed that provision from the budget.

A letter to the budget committee from the Wisconsin District Attorneys Association said the state is short 119 prosecutors in district attorney’s offices across Wisconsin. Eric Toney, the past president of the association, said the organization asked lawmakers to include funding for an additional 59 assistant district attorney positions in the budget.

“Many counties desperately need them with the complexity of cases, the amount of discovery, and in some areas, the severity of cases that we’re seeing. And we need more prosecutors across the state,” Toney said in an interview with WPR.

Based on feedback from lawmakers, the group is requesting funding to get to 80 percent staffing levels in district attorneys offices in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin lawmakers look to add prosecutors district-by-district was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.