On the night of July 8, the state budget was passed in the Assembly on a 52-46 vote ending a longer than expected process that featured a number of twists and turns but ended just in time to get the bill to the governor so he can sign it before making his candidacy for President […]
State Budget: State Judiciary and Corrections
Date Wed, Jul. 8, 2015 - 9:47pm By Hamilton
In the realm of courts and corrections, JFC’s actions varied between adopting, modifying and rejecting the governor’s proposals. Overall, JFC approved the governor’s proposals to create a new supreme court and circuit court block grant. JFC slightly modified the circuit court block grant by delaying the consolidations of appropriations under the new block grant until […]
State Budget: Prevailing Wage Reform
Date Wed, Jul. 8, 2015 - 9:45pm By Hamilton
After much debate over whether prevailing wage reform would be passed as separate legislation, the changes were ultimately placed into the state budget and passed. Sen. Frank Lasee (R-De Pere) and Rep. Hutton (R-Brookfield) led the effort to include prevailing wage reform in the budget. Otherwise known as the “Lasee/Hutton Plan,” the changes reformed the […]
State Budget: Motion #999
Date Wed, Jul. 8, 2015 - 9:41pm By Hamilton
The wrap-up motion, also referred to as Motion #999, is the final omnibus motion introduced by Joint Finance Committee in every budget. The motion is always a grab bag of surprises as it can include nearly anything, and is not released to the public until official introduction to the committee. Most of the provisions described below […]
State Budget: Health
Date Wed, Jul. 8, 2015 - 9:31pm By Hamilton
As a major aspect of state budget, the state’s health services always take up a significant amount of airtime during state budget deliberations. This biennium was certainly no exception for the Joint Finance Committee (JFC), as they made changes to the governor’s proposed changes to state’s long-term care and medical assistance program. Medical Assistance Governor […]
State Budget: Taxes and Economic Development
Date Wed, Jul. 8, 2015 - 9:24pm By Hamilton
Tax Package The governor proposed cutting property taxes by increasing state spending on the school levy tax credit by $211 million over two years. Under the budget bill, the governor’s tax credit increase will be delayed, by moving all the payments back one cycle, leaving one payment to the fiscal year after the biennial budget, […]
State Budget: Broadband and Workforce Development
Date Wed, Jul. 8, 2015 - 9:20pm By Hamilton
Broadband The governor’s budget proposed to change the broadband expansion grants appropriation from a continuing appropriation to a biennial appropriation and authorizes the use of the universal serve fund revenues to fund the grant program. Currently, grant expenditures of up to $500,000 annually from a continuing appropriation, but the governor’s proposal would set the appropriation […]
State Budget: Tourism
Date Wed, Jul. 8, 2015 - 9:17pm By Hamilton
Office of Marketing The governor’s big proposal for the Department of Tourism in his 2015-2017 proposed budget included moving all marketing positions in each state agency to the Office of Marketing in the Department of Tourism. The governor’s proposal established eight positions to staff the Office of Marketing and provided $734,700 PR in 2015-2016 and $693,000 PR […]
State Budget: Worker’s Compensation
Date Wed, Jul. 8, 2015 - 9:14pm By Hamilton
The governor’s original proposed budget included a provision to move the worker’s compensation division in the Department of Workforce Development (DWD) to the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OCI). During budget committee deliberations, JFC removed the governor’s provision, from the budget bill. However, JFC did accept the governor’s proposal to transfer most adjudicatory functions […]
State Budget: Transportation
Date Wed, Jul. 8, 2015 - 8:13pm By Hamilton
The governor’s recommended transportation budget did not include tax or fee increases to help balance the Department of Transportation (DOT) budget. Overall, the governor’s transportation budget recommended providing $6.4 billion to build and maintain transportation projects and relied on $1.3 billion in new bonding to fund transportation projects. His proposal also included $836.1 million over […]