MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Democratic Gov. Tony Evers said Tuesday 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.”
Evers unveiled a budget last month 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 the next four 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.
Rep. Michael Schraa, the Republican chair of the Assembly Corrections Committee, called Evers' proposal to raise corrections pay by about $13 an hour unrealistic at a hearing earlier Tuesday. Schraa said he was looking at a $7 an hour raise for correctional officers — an amount he said would...
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