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Happy Belated Thanksgiving from Hamilton Consulting! With Thanksgiving and the Wisconsin deer hunt is now behind us, take time to check out this issue of Tidbits, where we congratulate our own, Andy Cook, for his appointment as the next Deputy Attorney General.
In addition, we have a full preview of what the state budget discussions will look like in January now that all agency budget requests are in, the EPA's carbon rule comment period has ended, legislative committee assignments are rolling out, and Hamilton's "Get to Know a Freshman" series continues.
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| 2015 - 2017 State Budget Preview |
The first six months of every two-year legislative cycle is largely devoted to debate and passage of the biennial budget bill. This coming session is expected to be no exception, and the Governor and Republican-controlled Legislature will have some challenging budget issues to work out between now and June of 2015. That work is already underway and the Governor's proposal will be officially introduced around late January of 2015.
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| Wisconsin Comments on EPA's Carbon Rule |
Governor Walker, legislators, state officials, and industry groups submitted comments on EPA's proposed carbon regulation for existing power plants at the beginning of December.
The Department of Natural Resources and Public Service Commission jointly filed a robust 119 pages of comments to EPA. The comments outline general concerns, building block comments, technical data corrections for Wisconsin, emission reduction efforts in Wisconsin, legal issues, and Wisconsin-specific modelling results and cost estimates concluding that the rule could cost Wisconsin up to $13 billion.
Read more...
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| Joint Finance and 2015-2016 Standing Committees Announced | |
With inauguration day quickly approaching, the leadership has begun to announce the committee assignments for the upcoming session. Most members of the Joint Finance Committee have been announced, with the exception of the two Democratic Assembly members. This week, Senate Majority Leader Fitzgerald announced all the Republican Senate committee assignments, and Speaker Vos announced the Assembly committee structure - creating two new committees.
Read more for:
- Joint Finance Committee Members
- 2015-2015 Senate Committee Assignments
- 2015-2016 Assembly Standing Committees
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| Hamilton's Andy Cook Appointed Deputy Attorney General |
 Hamilton Consulting's Andy Cook has been appointed by Attorney General-elect Brad Schimel to be Deputy Attorney General. Andy will lead the transition team from current Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen to the newly elected attorney general. We at The Hamilton Consulting Group are very proud of Andy's successes here and with General-elect Schimel's confidence in him.
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| Get to Know a Freshman: Week 2 | |
In our previous issue, Hamilton Consulting brought you the"Get to Know a Freshman" series, where we highlighted four incoming legislators. With one of the largest freshman classes ever in the Wisconsin Legislature, it may be harder to get to know the newly elected senators and representatives.
This week, Political Tidbits highlights four new legislators - State Senators-elect Janet Bewley and Steve Nass and State Representatives-elect Jonathan Brostoff and David Steffen. For the 2015-2016 Wisconsin Legislature, the State Senate has seven new senators (five Republicans, two Democrats), and the State Assembly has 25 new representatives (eighteen Republicans, seven Democrats).
Read more...
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| Minnesota's New GOP Leadership Renews Hope for Tax Reciprocity |
Wisconsin's tax reciprocity deal with Minnesota ended in 2009 after a 40-year agreement left Minnesota losing money on the deal. Currently, businesses that operate in both states must file tax returns in both states.
Read more...
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| 20th Annual Governor's Conference on Economic Development | |
February 11-13, 2015
Monona Terrace Community Convention Center in Madison, WI
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| Hamilton Consulting Brings on Two New Team Members | |
 Caty McDermott has been working in governmental affairs and policy development for more than nine years, across two states, and in a variety of roles. Prior to joining Hamilton Consulting in 2014, Caty was a grants analyst in the Executive Office at the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority. Before joining WHEDA, Caty worked at the Connecticut Office of Policy and Management performing budgeting, legislative analysis, and policy development for several state agencies. Caty received her Master of Public Administration from the University of Connecticut and a Bachelor's degree from UW-Madison in political science and English.
 Rebecca Ballweg has been involved in government and politics since the age of 10 and has been working in communications and marketing for the past five years. After nearly a year working as an intern for Hamilton Consulting, Rebecca moved into a full-time communications and marketing position with the firm in September 2014. In this capacity, she has continued to manage the firm's electronic and social media, including website updates, writing and producing Political Tidbits, as well as attending hearings and tracking legislation. Rebecca received her Bachelor of Arts in political science from the University of Wisconsin - Madison, after two years at the University of Wisconsin - River Falls.
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Hamilton Consulting: Your Government Relations Easy Button
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The Hamilton team is working to make sure our clients have the tools necessary to accomplish their government relations goals. We encourage our clients to remember to make use of all the many services we provide:
- Political Tidbits - Political Tidbits is our FREE email newsletter on political and policy developments in Wisconsin, including links to relevant news articles, policy papers, and other informative documents. We are constantly updating our mailing list and we could use your help! Please let us know if your email address is changing so you will continue to receive our newsletter. Also, feel free to forward this newsletter to others who may be interested in subscribing.
- News Clips - President Harry Truman once wrote that you can't get all the facts from just one newspaper, and without the facts, "you cannot make proper judgments about what is going on." The right column of Political Tidbits contains a selection of the most important news stories, but did you know you can always get the news sorted by subject on the Hamilton Consulting website?
- Political Fundraising Calendar - Hamilton's political fundraising calendar allows you to see all of the upcoming fundraising events and import them to your own calendar.
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The Hamilton Consulting Group Political Tidbits is a free newsletter on Wisconsin political and policy developments. Please forward it to others who may wish to receive this service.
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