Lawmakers Give DA's Cash To Keep Up Work

MADISON, Wis. (WTAQ) - State lawmakers have given district attorneys another $700,000 a year to help keep up with their caseloads in the face of budget cuts. But the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee refused Tuesday to let the state-funded prosecutors get out of 3 of the 8 unpaid furlough days Governor Jim Doyle ordered all state workers to take in the current fiscal year. State officials have said that DA’s offices are way understaffed – and they’re facing even more pressure now that tougher drunk driving laws were adopted 3 months ago. But if the prosecutors don’t take all their furlough days, budget officials say they’ll have to lay off some assistant DA’s – even with the new funding.

Catharine White, head of the Association of State Prosecutors, says their contract calls for only 5 furlough days. But finance co-chair Mark Pocan says giving an exception to the prosecutors would encourage other state employee groups to try and get out of their furlough days as well. White says the assistant DA’s don’t get overtime, like others. But the Doyle administration has consistently said it would clamp down on employees using OT to get around the furloughs – which are supposed to cut all state workers’ pay by about 3 percent.