MADISON, Wis. — A dramatic reduction in electronic tracking of Wisconsin’s worst sex offenders in Gov. Jim Doyle’s budget will not win support from Democrats or Republicans in the state Assembly, Speaker Mike Huebsch said on Thursday.

State law requires the Department of Corrections to use global positioning technology to track sexual predators and child molesters for the rest of their lives beginning in July.
Doyle signed the bill into law. But his budget proposal would scale it, requiring tracking only for the worst offenders while they’re on supervised release or parole.

Huebsch, a Republican from West Salem, called Doyle’s proposal “disturbing.”

Monitoring sex offenders has to be a priority, Huebsch said.

“That is not partisan,” he said. “Democrats want to monitor these individuals as much as Republicans do.”

Huebsch predicts that neither party will support Doyle’s proposal to scale back the program.

Questions have persisted about the law’s constitutionality and cost even after Doyle signed it into law.

The Corrections Department requested about $24 million and nearly 235 new positions to implement the law over the next two years. Doyle’s budget proposal cuts the funding to $11 million and 122 positions.

Huebsch said he felt the department was overestimating the cost because it does not like the law.

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