Budget move would let Wisconsin sex offenders live closer to schools, day care centers

MADISON - Sexual predators would have to live in their home counties when they are released but could be placed near schools, parks and day care centers, under a plan adopted Tuesday by the Legislature’s budget committee.

The legislator behind the plan said he wanted to crack down on judges placing violent sex offenders far from their home counties, in part by putting the responsibility for finding housing for them in the hands of local officials.

“There is a logjam in the system now where they’re having trouble placing people in the final phase of treatment,” said Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam). “We really need to remember this is treatment and the folks who are in it have constitutional rights.”

The Joint Finance Committee approved the plan 13-3, with Rep. Katrina Shankland (D-Stevens Point) joining all Republicans in supporting it. The other Democrats on the committee said the proposal should get a hearing and be dealt with as stand-alone legislation.

“I just think this is not the kind of thing you want to stick in the budget,” said Rep. Gordon Hintz (D-Oshkosh).

Gov. Scott Walker's administration needs time to review the proposal, said Walker spokesman Tom Evenson. 

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The committee adopted the proposal with little notice as it chipped away at the state’s spending plan. In the coming weeks, it will send the budget to the Assembly and Senate for approval.

A law passed last year allowed judges to ignore local ordinances on where violent sex offenders could be placed, but also required that they be placed at least 1,500 feet from schools, child care centers, parks and churches.

Under the proposal adopted Tuesday, those specific limits would no longer apply, though officials would still need to consider how close housing would be to such places. Authority for placing the predators would shift from state officials to local officials.

Supporters argued local officials know their communities best and would make sure they place predators appropriately. They said flexibility was essential so local officials could, for example, put a predator in a house next to a police station even if it was less than 1,500 feet from a school.

Judges would make the final call on where offenders are housed, as they do now.

Officials have had difficulty devising placement plans for violent sex offenders, particularly in urban areas such as Milwaukee County, because of the limits on where they can be located.

Born said he developed the budget provision to ensure offenders are returned to where they come from. Local officials are “just going to have to find the best option they can” to find housing for violent sex offenders under the state’s Chapter 980 law, he said.

“You can’t dump on other counties now” under his plan, he said. “Many counties that are placing 980s are doing statewide searches and it needs to stop.”

To get final approval of the proposal, Born will need the support of rank-and-file legislators such as Rep. Joel Kleefisch (R-Oconomowoc), who is working on separate legislation addressing the placement of a broader group of sex offenders.

Kleefisch said the state's laws need to be changed because restrictions are so tight that some sex offenders wind up homeless. But he expressed reservations about having no limits on how close offenders could be placed to schools under Born's plan.

"I do strongly support a buffer zone where they are just plain not allowed to go," Kleefisch said.

So far, the Joint Finance Committee has not gotten to the meatiest financial issues, and the leaders of the panel on Tuesday acknowledged Republicans remain divided on a Walker plan to eliminate the state's portion of property tax bills. 

Most property taxes are levied by schools and other local governments, but a small portion of them — $26 on a median-valued home — are collected by the state for a forestry program. Walker's plan to drop that tax would save taxpayers $180 million over two years. 

But Walker's fellow Republicans who lead the Legislature are split on the issue, according to the leaders of the budget committee, Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) and Rep. John Nygren (R-Marinette).

"It's being debated, so stay tuned," Darling said. 

Also Tuesday, the budget committee voted 12-4 along party lines to retain five of six elections jobs Walker wants to cut.

The state received more than $50 million in federal grants to bolster its election systems under a 2000 law.

Now, that federal aid is running out.

The committee voted 12-4 to use state taxpayer money to preserve 21 of 22 federally funded jobs. Walker wants to keep 16 jobs and cut six.

The committee voted 12-4 to reduce the daily stipends paid to members of the state's ethics and elections commissions in half, from $454 each time they meet to $227. Walker wants deeper cuts, reducing their pay to $50 per meeting.

The budget committee also voted 12-4 to spend $12 million and hire 73 people to open two psychiatric units to care for patients who have been committed to a state institution because of a criminal case. The units would eventually both be housed at Mendota Mental Health Institute in Madison.

On a 12-4 vote, the committee agreed to set aside $1.2 million over the next two years for an eight-bed facility where children could temporarily stay after mental health crises. Health officials have pitched the facility as an alternative to state hospitalization that would be less traumatic for kids and save money.

Walker’s proposed facility for children touches on one of the key policy recommendations from a USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin series called “Kids in Crisis," which found that hospitalization can be costly for both taxpayers and youth. 

State officials would need to get further sign off from the budget committee on their plans for the facility, which would open in April 2018 at a location to be determined. 

The panel left in place Walker’s proposal to increase state payments to foster parents by 2.5% in each of the next two years at a cost of $3 million more in state and federal money. The basic per-child rate for both sets of parents would increase to $238 per month in 2018 from the current level of $232 and rise again to $244 in 2019.

The committee voted 12-4 to approve Walker’s recommendation to spend more than $6 million in new money to help fund county child welfare programs that are under increasing demand because of factors that include abuse of heroin and prescription opiates. That would mean more than $144 million over two years for these programs to ensure the safety and well-being of children.

Keegan Kyle of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin contributed to this report.