Senate passes amended public defender pay parity bill.

Byline: Michaela Paukner, mpaukner@wislawjournal.com

Wisconsin public defenders are on pace to receive pay parity withstate prosecutors. The state Senate on Tuesday passed an amended version of Senate Bill 468to provide a pay-progression plan for assistant state public defenders.

The bill would have originally provided the office with $1.4 million for that purpose in 2019-20 and $2.6 million in 2020-21.Sen. Duey Stroebel, R-Saukville, offered an amendment changing the first amount to $468,200 and stipulating that the act wouldn't take effect until March 1, 2020. The amended version of the bill was passed unanimously and sent to the Assembly.

Among other bills passed by the Senate during its floor session on Tuesday:

Senate Bill 47would make entering a dwelling or certain other places with the intent to commit battery a Class F felony, regardless of whether the intended battery would result in a misdemeanor or felony.

Senate Bill 384would change operating privileges for people convicted of an OWI offense. Under the bill, if a court had ordered an ignition-interlock device for a first offense OWI, the person subject to the order would be prevented from operating vehicles that had not been equipped with such a device. But courts would not be required to order the installation of an ignition-interlock device. The measure...