Jan. 25, 2012 – A bipartisan group of state legislators has introduced a bill intended to retain experienced prosecutors by improving their compensation.
The legislation, 2011 Senate Bill 394 and Assembly Bill 488, establishes a pay progression program for assistant district attorneys (ADAs), but does not fund it in the current biennium. According to the bill’s sponsors, the legislature would need to address funding in the next state biennium starting July 1, 2013.
Sen. Luther Olsen (R-Ripon) and Rep. Michelle Litjens (R-Oshkosh) authored the bill. The sponsors say the bill is supported by the Wisconsin District Attorneys Association, the Association of State Prosecutors, the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault, and the Wisconsin Chiefs of Police Association.
The State Bar of Wisconsin also supports the legislation.
The bill has been referred to the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Utilities, Commerce and Government Operations, but has not yet been scheduled for a public hearing.
A system in crisis
In 1989, ADAs were made state employees and were paid under a stepped system that moved employees along a pay scale in accordance with the number of years worked. However, in 2002, pay progression was eliminated.
According to an October 2011 study released by the University of Wisconsin-Madison's LaFollette School of Public Affairs, 246 of Wisconsin’s 330 ADAs left their jobs between 2001 and 2007. The overall annual turnover rate for ADAs since 1990 has been 15.6 percent, but since 2000 it increased to 17.2 percent and since 2005 it has increased to 18.4 percent. According to the bill's sponsors, nearly 10% of the ADAs statewide have resigned in the past year. However, the number of criminal cases filed in Wisconsin from 2001-2006 rose dramatically – felony cases increased 16.2% and overall criminal caseloads increased by 11.5%, according to legislators.
Bill would re-establish pay progression
The state's current biennial budget, 2011 Wisconsin Act 32, called for the establishment of a pay progression program for prosecutors. Under SB 394 and AB 488, the pay progression plan would consist of 17 hourly salary steps, with each step equal to one-seventeenth of the difference between the lowest hourly salary and the highest hourly salary for the salary range for ADAs contained in the state’s current compensation plan. The first step would equal the lowest hourly salary rate for the salary range and the last step would equal the highest hourly salary rate for the salary range.
According to the bill, the pay progression plan “shall be based entirely on merit.” If enacted into law and eventually funded, on July 1, 2013, all ADAs who have served with the state for a continuous period of 12 months or more, and who are not paid the maximum hourly rate, must be paid an hourly salary at the step that is immediately above their hourly salary on June 30, 2013. All other ADAs who are not paid the maximum hourly rate must be paid an hourly salary at the step that is immediately above their hourly salary on June 30, 2013, when they have served with the state as an ADA for a continuous period of 12 months.
In addition, under the bill, on July 1, 2014—and on each July 1 thereafter—all ADAs who have served with the state for a continuous period of 12 months or more, and who are not paid the maximum hourly rate, may, at the discretion of their supervising district attorney, be paid an hourly salary at any step above their hourly salary on the immediately preceding June 30. All other ADAs who are not paid the maximum hourly rate may (again, at the discretion of their supervising district attorney) be paid an hourly salary at any step above their hourly salary on the immediately preceding June 30, but only after they have served with the state as an ADA for a continuous period of 12 months.
Continue to monitor WisBar.org and visit the State Bar's Government Relations page for updated information on these issues.
By Adam Korbitz, Government Relations Coordinator, State Bar of Wisconsin
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© 2012, State Bar of Wisconsin
