Part of DarthDoyle's "budget-cutting" scheme is ....
Ta-Da!!!
Firing prosecutors.
...Unfortunately, though, it will include cuts to the Department of District Attorneys (WI State Prosecutor's Office) and Department of Justice. The Dept. of District Attorneys, which is part of the Department of Administration, is only authorized to fund Assistant DA positions.
That means that there are no paper supplies, pens, or any other ways to cut the DDA budget without cutting personnel. At a time when the Legislative Audit Bureau found that Wisconsin is short staffed by 132 prosecutors statewide, more cuts WILL result in an inability to prosecute cases. That means that hard choices will be made, with counties deciding between priorities -- maybe no marijuana prosecutions, or misdemeanor prosecutions except for weapons offenses.
This is the DarthDoyle equivalent of the school-superintendent trick: "OK, we no longer have the money for (insert one) football/basketball/soccer/Academic Decathalon...."
It's simply a vengeful spite played out and puts Wisconsin families at risk.
Still waiting for DarthDoyle to take a 30% pay cut, sell the Executive Mansion, and reduce his staff to one or two phone-answerers...
HT: Prosqtor
Doyle already cut 15 positions a couple of years ago.
ReplyDeleteFor a former DA, he is not and has not been a friend to law enforcement.
One of the problems is that the fed budgets keep cutting funds for criminal justice--a 68% decrease in the last budget, for example.
ReplyDeleteThat's costing us more than 20 prosectutors. It's happening nationwide; google up other states and you'll see the same thing.