Dane County Sheriff speaks against budget proposal that would keep deputy positions unfilled to fund Health & Human Services

MADISON, Wis. — To balance Dane County's $31 million deficit, some supervisors are proposing using unfilled sheriff's deputy positions to fund other departments.

“What we're trying to do is just really to make everything fair,” District 6 Supervisor Yogesh Chawla said.

What Chawla and two other supervisors think is fair is taking the money budgeted for 28 Dane County deputy positions from the Dane County Sheriff's Office and relocating it to health and human services programs.

“I really want to emphasize that not one sheriff deputy is being taken off the streets,” Chawla said. “These are vacant positions that, unfortunately, aren't being able to be hired and we looked at the last five years of data and that's just the case.”

Chawla said he would try to make sure the money was used to