The legislature will make their final floor votes for 2015 next week as the Assembly will be voting on campaign finance reform (read about below) and the Government Accountability Board. Things will slow down in the Capitol, until they pick back up again for the first floor session in mid-January. Also making final moves, Governor Walker signed 49 bills into law on Wednesday.
In major legal news, a judge has ruled in favor of a petitioner who brought a case involving high capacity well permits against the Department of Natural Resources.
|
| Judge Rules in Favor of Petitioner in
New Chester Dairy v. Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
|
Judge McGinnis of the Outagamie County Circuit Court ruled in favor of the petitioner and intervenors in New Chester Dairy v. Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. The court held that under 2011 Act 21 the Department of Natural Resources lacked explicit authority to impose monitoring well requirements in high capacity well permits. The court also clearly stated that under Act 21, agencies cannot use implied authority to impose regulatory requirements.
|
| Legislature Releases $350 Million in Additional Bonding for Transportation |
The Joint Committee on Finance (JFC) has approved a motion to release $350 million in bonding for transportation projects. The motion will allow $200 million in bonding for 2015-2016, and $150 million in 2016-2017.
The Department of Transportation (DOT) requested $200 million on October 19, which would require JFC to approve the request with no JFC member objections. However, in a letter to DOT Secretary Mark Gottlieb, JFC Chair Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) announced multiple objections have been raised. Therefore a formal vote had to be held.
In a motion that passed 10-6, all Senate Republicans voted no, while all Democrats and Assembly Republicans voted yes.
Read more about transportation funding.
|
| Senate Passes Campaign Finance Reforms Bill with Significant Changes to Coordination Restrictions |
New campaign finance reforms continue to make their way through the legislative process. The reforms completely rewrite Chapter 11 in Wisconsin statutes and make significant changes.
The Senate passed the bill 17-15 with an amendment, which made the following changes to the bill:
- Lowers the monetary threshold triggering registration for political action committees (PACs) and independent expenditure committees (IECs) from $5,000 to $2,500.
- Changes the ongoing reporting requirement from quarterly reporting to twice-yearly reporting.
- Eliminates automatic consumer price index (CPI) adjustment of contribution limits.
- Creates an additional limitation on the use of a legislative campaign committee's or political party's segregated fund. Under the amendment, a segregated fund may not be used to make disbursements for express advocacy. The amendment also retains the prohibition on using a segregated fund to make contributions to a candidate committee.
- Limits the amount a corporation, association, labor organization, or Indian tribe may contribute to such a segregated fund to $12,000 in the aggregate in a calendar year. The original bill had no limit.
- Incorporates federal law prohibitions on activities by foreign nationals relating to elections
Read more about the extensive changes to coordination restrictions the amendment made.
|
| Legislature Attempting to Exert Additional Control Over State Employee Health Insurance Plan |
Joint Finance Committee Co-Chairpersons Representative John Nygren (R-Marinette) and Senator Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) introduced and championed
Assembly Bill 394
to empower JFC to review and approve changes proposed by the Group Insurance Board to the health plan for state employees. The Assembly passed AB 394 by a vote of
90-2
on October 27. Friday, November 6, the Senate unanimously concurred in AB 394 but narrowed its scope to allowing JFC to reviewing and considering for approval any contract to provide self-insured group health plans on a regional or statewide based to state employees. The bill now goes back to the Assembly to consider the changes made by the Senate.
Governor Walker has said he would veto the broader bill if it reaches his desk but has not publicly revealed his intentions if the narrower bill passes both houses of the legislature.
|
| Building Materials Tax Exemption Passed by Senate |
In an extraordinary session last week the Senate passed
Senate Bill 227
, a bill that will allow contractors to directly purchase construction materials on behalf of their tax-exempt clients without paying the sales tax. The proposal was originally included in the tax reform package of the budget by the Joint Finance Committee. However, the governor vetoed the language included in the budget that would allow the exemption, saying the language was "too broad" but he was supportive of the intention. In his veto message, Governor Walker encouraged legislation to be introduced with amended language.
|
| Structured Settlements Bill Signed Into Law |
|
|
|
Pictured left to right: Denise Rinear,Chief compliance Officer, J.G. Wentworth; Governor Scott Walker; Representative Jim Ott, (R-Mequon), Chair, Legislative Study Committee on Transfer of Structured Settlements
|
Governor Scott Walker signed Assembly Bill 129 into law this week, creating a new set of statues to govern the transfer of structured settlement payments. With the bill's signing, Wisconsin joined 48 other states that previously had structured settlement transfer provisions already in place.
|
| Governor Walker Creates New Commission on Government Reform, Efficiency, and Performance |
Governor Scott Walker's newly created bipartisan Commission on Government Reform, Efficiency, and Performance met for the first time last week.
Governor Walker created the commission by executive order in order to "explore methods to reduce government spending, reduce service duplication, eliminate waste fraud, and abuse in government, and look for better ways to operate state government that increase efficiency and reduces the burden on taxpayers" according to a statement from the Governor's office. Governor Walker also expressed that deciding between high taxes or poor governments services is a "false choice" and that the commission will help the Wisconsin taxpayers' dollars go further.
Those serving on the commission include a variety of state legislators, members from the Governor's cabinet, local government administrators, and private sector business professionals.
Read about the members of the Commission.
|
| Hamilton Consulting: Your Government Relations Easy Button |
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.
|
|
The Hamilton Consulting Group Political Tidbits is a free newsletter on Wisconsin political and policy developments. Please it to others who may wish to receive this service.
If you require additional information about a topic addressed in Tidbits for your organization's board meeting or trade publication, please do not hesitate to contact a Hamilton Consulting Group lobbyist.
To ensure that Political Tidbits never gets caught in your spam filter, please add publications@hamilton-consulting.com to your address book/contacts list. If you are receiving these emails via a workplace email account, please advise your IT service desk to do this for you.
|
|
|
|
