New district attorney to seek more state funding
By Kevin O’Brien
Marathon County’s new district attorney, Kyle Mayo, told county supervisors last week that he and other prosecutors across Wisconsin will be asking lawmakers to chip in more money for the criminal justice system as they put together the next biennium budget.
In his first appearance before the Public Safety Committee since being elected to replace former DA Theresa Wetzsteon, Mayo listed a number of state budget requests that he says would make the court system operate more efficiently.
Mayo is a member of the Wisconsin Criminal Justice Coalition, an advocacy group that includes both prosectors and public defenders, along with representatives of the state Department of Justice and Director of State Courts. The coalition is asking lawmakers to increase state funding for victim witness specialists up to 60 percent, to hire 19 additional crime lab technicians and to invest more money in the computers and software used by DA’s offices.
The DA’s budget has always been a mix of state and county funding, with the state paying for the prosecutors and the office technology and the county paying for the rest of the staff and other expenses. Mayo said the state currently reimburses DA’s offices for 40 to 50 percent of the cost of victim witness specialists, but the DOJ would like to see that boosted to 60 percent.
“That would save some money for the county,” he said.
In addition, the hiring of 19 additional crime lab technicians would help expedite criminal trials, which are often delayed due to the lack of available staff at the state crime lab, he said. Another hinderance for the DA’s office is the lack of timely technology upgrades due to the state’s IT budget staying essentially the same since 2011, he said.
“They’re really unable, at this time, to fund core services,” he said. “So, the life cycle of our computers got pushed back, I believe it was two years, because they didn’t have money to provide new computers to us.”
The state will also be asked to pick up the tab for prosecutors who were initially hired on a limited term basis using one-time money from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). For his office, Mayo said making the ARPA-funded prosecutor a permanent position would allow his deputy DA to lighten his caseload and take on more administrative duties.
At the same time, the public defenders in the Criminal Justice Coalition are asking the state to lower the income requirements for those who qualify for a statefunded attorney.
County administrator Lance Leonhard, a former prosecutor in the DA’s office, noted that the income qualifications for public defender representation are still tied to the 2011 poverty index.
“If we neglect the public defender side and people can’t get lawyers, cases are going to languish,” he said.
With Gov. Tony Evers releasing his budget proposal this week and Republican lawmakers on the Joint Finance Committee set to follow that up with their own version of the budget, Leonhard said county officials will have plenty of time to take stock of those proposals and provide input.
Leonhard said he expects the number one priority of the Wisconsin Counties Association will be asking lawmakers to provide more equitable funding for the locally run state court system.
“It says Marathon County Courthouse on the building, but make no mistake, it is a state circuit court,” he said, noting that all of the judges and prosecutors are state employees.
At this point, though, Leonhard said counties are “putting in way more than 50 percent of the resources,” pointing to the $1.6 million in local tax dollars to go toward the clerk of courts office every year.
Besides passing a resolution calling on lawmakers to provide more funding for the court system, supervisor Yee Ling Xiong wondered what more board members could
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do to influence the state budget. Both Mayo and Leonhard said talking directly to legislators would be helpful, especially considering that two legislators representing parts of Marathon County – Rep. Karen Hurd and Sen. Mary Felzkowski – are on the budget- writing JFC.
Supervisor Deb Hoppa also added that money could be saved and court proceedings expedited if defendants who repeatedly fail to show up for court appearances face some kind of “stiff penalties.”
“I really think that things are too loose in the court system, and they need to be tightened up,” she said.
