Wis. DOJ braces for budget cuts

June 3, 2009

 
MADISON - Mike Myszewski had settled in with the History Channel on the evening of July 31 when the phone rang.

The administrator of the state Division of Criminal Investigation picked up. On the other end was an operator from the state Justice Department. The Marinette County Sheriff's Department was desperately searching the woods along the Michigan border for Scott Johnson, who'd gunned down three teenagers that afternoon. And they needed help. Myszewski quickly got Sheriff's Detective Anthony O'Neil on his cell phone.

"Whatever you need, you got from us," Myszewski told him. Within two hours more than 20 state agents had assembled in Marinette County.

That's how the state Justice Department officials say their agency is supposed to work — scrambling agents, crime analysts and attorneys to help local police and prosecutors hunt down suspects, figure out whodunits and litigate complex court cases.

But DOJ officials say the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee has cut their 2009-2011 budget so deep it could cripple the agency.

Scores of agency employees now face layoffs, setting the stage for weak responses to aid requests, mounting evidence backlogs and cutting back on litigation, they say. The cuts came after the committee's Democratic chairmen spent months squabbling with Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, prompting complaints of political payback.

"The fact is that the JFC ignored our public safety mission and services to law enforcement, crime victims and citizens across this state. We never imagined that the Justice Department would be treated so inequitably and in such a seemingly partisan manner," Van Hollen said in an agency-wide e-mail Friday.

State Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, who runs the committee along with Sen. Mark Miller, D-Monona, denied anyone was out to punish Van Hollen. He said every agency has taken cuts as lawmakers grapple with Wisconsin's $6.6 billion deficit.

Van Hollen got an increase in the last state budget to hire more DNA analysts, he said. The attorney general has shown he can be frugal, returning $1.2 million in unused money to the state last year, Pocan added.

"I'm very confident he'll make the right decisions," Pocan said. "If I didn't think he could, I'd make those decisions for him."

Pocan and Miller have been at odds with Van Hollen since September, when Van Hollen filed a lawsuit demanding state election officials verify the identity of tens of thousands of voters in the weeks before the November election. Van Hollen maintained federal law mandated the checks. Democrats accused him of trying to disenfranchise voters.

A judge dismissed the lawsuit before the election. Pocan and Miller demanded to know how much Van Hollen had spent on it, asking him three times. Van Hollen said the final cost was only $720 and DOJ doesn't track attorney time. Pocan and Miller didn't buy that.

Pocan and Miller also have locked horns with Van Hollen after police departments disputed the accuracy of a DOJ gang assessment report and the attorney general started showing up at finance committee hearings around the state to decry Doyle's plan to shave time off criminal's prison sentences for good behavior.

During budget deliberations over the last month, the Joint Finance Committee slashed about $13.5 million from the department over the next two years, or about 10 percent of the agency's budget, department officials said. Those cuts included $1 million to cover raises for prosecutors and public defenders and another $2.7 million from all agency operations, wiped out during an all-night committee session last week.

That all comes on top of mandatory furloughs Doyle ordered for state employees and doing away with 2 percent raises for non-unionized employees.

The agency already is holding about 45 positions open, DOJ spokesman Kevin St. John said. The new cuts will mean an additional 80 layoffs. That means investigators, crime analysts and attorneys.

Department lawyers who represent the state may have to stop filing appeals and start turning down requests for help from local prosecutors on complex cases, St. John said.

Analysts might have to quit visiting crime scenes, he added. Training for district attorneys and local police could go, and evidence waiting for tests, including DNA samples, might start piling up, he said.

The agency would have fewer agents spread over a larger area, slowing response times and slashing the manpower available to help local agencies like the Marinette County Sheriff's Department.

"Who are they going to turn to for help?" St. John asked. "The locals will have to do it on their own."

Doyle, a former attorney general, said all agencies face deep cuts to help fill the budget shortfall.

"I'm not aware of any picking on of any agency," the governor said.

The state is set to receive about $30 million in federal stimulus money for public safety. About $11 million of that will go to local police agencies, according to the state Office of Justice Assistance.

A plan to disburse the remainder needs Joint Finance Committee approval. That outline calls for DOJ to get $750,000, mostly for crime lab enhancements. The agency could apply for chunks of the rest of the money for specific projects.

The budget isn't a done deal yet. The Assembly, Senate and Doyle must approve it.

Van Hollen has promised to lobby lawmakers to at least restore the $2.7 million the committee cut in the middle of the night last week, but Democrats control both houses and the governor's office.

Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan, D-Janesville, said he planned to meet with Van Hollen on Tuesday, but everyone has to make sacrifices.

"It looks pretty grim," Myszewski said.

 

Associated Press