A Republican member of the legislature’s Jt. Finance committee says a package to boost pay for prosecutors and public defenders while adding assistant district attorneys is a step in the right direction. The committee recently approved $38.4 million in general purpose revenue to boost pay, while adding 26.5 positions in DA offices across the state. State representative Mark Born of Beaver Dam says the reimbursement rate for private attorneys who act as public defenders would go from $40 to $70 an hour starting in January. Governor Evers also had called for indexing that rate for inflation going forward but Republicans didn’t include that in their motion.
