'This has to be a priority': What can be done about the state's prosecutor shortage?

MADISON, Wis. — It was one of the most difficult decisions of his life, the Dodge County district attorney said, when he submitted his resignation in mid-January and left the county with no prosecutors.

The state Department of Administration was able to step in and hire three part-time attorneys to serve as prosecutors for the county, but the Dodge County example underscores a statewide trend that many find concerning.

"This has to be a priority," said Cheryl Daniels, the former president of the State Bar of Wisconsin.

"When you don't have speedy trials, you have an impact on the community that is huge," she said. "For anyone who's a victim of crime, it's devastating to have things take longer and longer time."

How to mitigate that shortage — Kurt Klomberg, the outgoing Dodge County DA, said raising prosecutor salary could be a good place to start. He advocates increasing their starting salary to $70,000 per year, which would be a roughly $15,000 increase from where it is now.

Any increase would have to go through the state budget process, which will begin in the next few months.

"Safety, to me, that's the most important thing that government can provide for its citizens," said Sen. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine.

He chairs the state Senate Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety, and said he has been proud of the work in past budgets to include pay progressions for prosecutors, so their salaries increase the longer they stay on.

The details of the current budget are still being hashed out, however, so it is unclear whether the Legislature will include those base salary increases in its final budget draft.

"We need to look at the entire system and we need to, not just put a Band-Aid on it, we need to really look at it effectively on how can we improve this," Wanggaard said. "We want to make sure that we do things that are smart, and that we do things that will have a lasting effect."

Many politicians are clamoring for a piece of the state's massive $7 billion budget surplus, but Wanggaard warned that the state needed to look beyond "one-time" funds to find a sustainable solution.

"We need the Legislature to say, 'Okay, whatever we start with as far as the budget goes... we've run on this issue, that we will keep our communities safe,'" Daniels said.

Wanggaard said there may be options to increase retention outside the state budget as well. He said making sure prosecutors have robust job benefits could help retain those attorneys.

"Helping make it easier for them to carry credits from one college to another, there's a whole bunch of areas that we can help make things smoother for the individual that's looking to get into that field," he said.

Those bills have not been introduced but could come later in the session.