By Harm Verhuizen, AP
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Democratic Gov. Tony Evers said March 7 he would consider rejecting a Republican budget plan that doesn’t significantly increase pay for corrections officers, prosecutors and public defenders.
Low pay and long hours have made it difficult for the state to hire new employees across the criminal justice system. More than 33% of correctional officer jobs are unfilled, and the State Bar of Wisconsin warned in January that understaffing in district attorney and public defender offices had become a “crisis situation.”
“Our system is on the brink, so we need to fund it, simple as that,” Evers said at a WisPolitics.com event on March 7.
Evers unveiled a budget in February that would increase starting pay for correctional officers to $33 an hour and to $35 an hour for assistant district attorneys and public defenders.
Republicans who control the Wisconsin Legislature will rewrite the budget plan over several months before sending it back to Evers, who can revise it with partial vetoes or send it back to the Legislature by vetoing it entirely. That could be what happens if raises for correctional officers, prosecutors and public defenders aren’t included, the governor warned.
“That’s just a non-starter. That might cause the budget to actually be rejected,” Evers said.
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