While I believe that most of my neighbors know that I lean Republican, I won't shy away from giving credit when a Democrat does something good. Governor Evers increased the allocation for funding additional Assistant District Attorneys for Washington County from the 1.0 FTE (full-time equivalent) the legislature had allocated to 1.6 FTE.
I also commend our legislature including Representative Gundrum and Senator Stroebel for reviewing this issue and originally increasing the funding for County Prosecutors and allocating 1 FTE for Washington County.
While there wasn't total agreement on this, there was in general bipartisan support for increasing funding, and bipartisanship worked.
A few nuts and bolts about this:
- The State of Wisconsin mandates that the County have prosecutors, specifically including a District Attorney.
- The State of Wisconsin provides funding for the District Attorney as well as Assistant District Attorneys.
- The State of Wisconsin has traditionally under-funded this department, leaving counties to either fund additional needed positions or overwork existing staff.
- The State of Wisconsin had not added any funding for any additional positions for more than 10 years.
- County case loads are growing.
- Washington County felt like we needed funding for 2 additional prosecutors (who are already on staff and currently funding by the County).
- Washington County currently gets funding for 5 positions but has 7 on staff. Those 2 additional positions are paid for by our County.
- The Legislator reviewed staffing levels and proposed funding 1 additional position for us.
- Governor Evers had the Department of Administration study the issue further, and is giving our County 1.6 FTE, on the presumption that we could share 1 person with Ozaukee County. I am guessing we will still fund the additional .4 FTE to keep that 7th position fully in Washington County.
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