On Monday, the Joint Finance Committee (JFC) held an executive session to introduce SB 209/AB 279, the Sports and Entertainment Arena – or Bucks arena bill. Immediately following the executive session, JFC held an invitation- only information hearing to hear testimony from the various stakeholders. After five hours of testimony, the committee finally adjourned. Funding […]
JFC Motion #999
Date Thu, Jul. 2, 2015 - 10:08pm By Hamilton
The wrap-up motion, also referred to as Motion #999, is the final omnibus motion introduced by JFC in every budget. The motion is always a grab bag of surprises as it can include nearly anything, and is not provided to the public until official introduction to the committee. This year, the 999 motion was released […]
JFC Motion on Taxes
Date Thu, Jul. 2, 2015 - 10:04pm By Hamilton
In the motion on general fund taxes, JFC created a sales and use tax exemption for goods sold to construction contractors for school, municipal and nonprofit facility projects. This exemption amounts to $11 million over the biennium. The committee also reduced the manufacturing and agricultural (MAC) credit from 5.526% to 5.025% for tax year 2015. […]
JFC Passes Transportation Motion
Date Thu, Jul. 2, 2015 - 3:51pm By Hamilton
The governor’s recommended transportation budget did not include tax or fee increases to help balance the Department of Transportation 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 the […]
As the Budget Turns…
Date Fri, Jun. 26, 2015 - 9:30am By Hamilton
No one knows for sure when legislators will finish work on the state budget, but as of today their public statements reveal that they are still at odds. The Joint Finance Committee (JFC) has not met since late May and there has not been any official notice of future JFC meetings. A few key sticking […]
JFC Actions: Week 6
Date Mon, Jun. 1, 2015 - 10:20am By Hamilton
Long Term Care, Building Commission, Transfers in DOA, Office of Marketing, Worker’s Compensation, Room Tax, UW System, DNR Wednesday May 27 Continuing to vote on large omnibus motions that cover multiple items, Joint Finance Committee (JFC) took up two of these packaged motions on May 27. One consisted of Medical Assistance- Long Term Care […]
JFC Actions: Week 5
Date Mon, Jun. 1, 2015 - 10:13am By Hamilton
Department of Corrections, Department of Public Instruction, Agency Mergers, Medical Assistance Wednesday, May 19 Department of Corrections On May 19, JFC took several actions on the Department of Corrections (DOC), in the areas of Adult Corrections, Community Corrections and Juvenile Corrections. JFC took no action on the governor’s proposal for GPS tracking, thereby adopting […]
JFC Executive Actions – Week 3
Date Fri, May. 15, 2015 - 10:38am By Hamilton
PECFA, Fast Forward Program, State Parks, Confluence Project, DOJ The Joint Finance Committee continues to work their way through the governor’s budget. Below are the highlights of JFC votes from last week. Read about JFC’s from this week here. Petroleum Environmental Cleanup Fund Award (PECFA) JFC passed a motion that would delay the governor’s proposed […]
JFC Executive Actions – Week 4
Date Fri, May. 15, 2015 - 10:32am By Hamilton
Environmental Improvement Fund, Telecommunications for Schools, IT Consolidation, Legal Services, Property Tax, Public Works, School Levy Tax The Joint Finance Committee continues to work their way through the governor’s budget. Below are the highlights of JFC votes from this week. Read last week’s JFC actions here. Environmental Improvement Fund The Environmental Improvement Fund includes two […]
LFB: No Additional Revenue Projected
Date Fri, May. 15, 2015 - 10:25am By Hamilton
After weeks of optimistically waiting for new revenue numbers from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB), legislators were faced with the bleak reality: there is no new revenue projected for the 2015-2017 budget. In the LFB memo to the members of the Joint Finance Committee, the LFB director explained that even if there was additional revenue […]