17 West Main Street, Suite 208
Madison, WI 53708
Dear Chief Clerk Fuller,
As you are aware, I recently gave birth. Due to my maternity leave, I missed two session days, September 20th and 27th. Per our previous conversation, I would appreciate if you would submit my hours for those days as sick leave.
Finally, I would like to submit that I would have voted in favor of Assembly Bill 727 in the Assembly Judiciary Committee had I been present for the vote on October 25th. Again, due to my maternity leave, I was unable to attend the Executive Session.
Thank you for your assistance with these requests. Please feel free to contact me with any questions.
Sincerely,
Samantha j. Kerkman
State Representative
66th Assembly District
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October 27, 2005
Patrick Fuller
Assembly Chief Clerk
17 West Main Street, Suite 208
Madison, WI 53708
Dear Chief Clerk Fuller:
I would like to request that my name be added as a co-author of Assembly Bill 778.
Thank you for your assistance. Please contact me if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Ron brown
State Senator
31st Senate District
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October 31, 2005
Patrick Fuller
Assembly Chief Clerk
17 West Main Street, Suite 208
Madison, WI 53708
Dear Chief Clerk Fuller:
With my recent election as Assembly Republican Majority Caucus Chairman, I wanted to let you know I will be sitting in seat number 19 that was recently vacated by Representative Dan Vrakas starting with tomorrow's Floor Session.
Sincerely,
mark d. gundrum
Republican Caucus Chair
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Agency Reports
State of Wisconsin
Department of Administration
Madison
October 15, 2005
To the Honorable, the Legislature:
A562
This report presents statements of fund condition and operations (budgetary basis) of the State of Wisconsin for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2005. This satisfies the requirements of s.
16.40(3), Wisconsin Statutes. Displayed are major sources of revenues and major categories of expenditures for the General Fund and other funds compared to the prior year.
The 2003-05 biennium began with a fiscal year 2003 deficit of $282 million. This quickly increased to $3.2 billion due to the use of one-time measures to balance the 2001-03 budget combined with increasing costs. Wisconsin's $3.2 billion budget deficit was one of the largest in the country on a per capita basis. This report confirms that the difficult decisions made by the Governor and Legislature, combined with an improving economy, have erased the deficit and left the state with a $4.1 million surplus.
The opening General Fund balance has been reduced due to improvements in the state's revenue accounting methodology used in years prior to fiscal year 2005, which required an adjustment to fiscal year 2004 accrued revenues. The result of this adjustment is a reduction in the fiscal year 2005 opening balance of $27.4 million.
The General Fund has an undesignated balance of $4.1 million as of the end of the fiscal year. This is $123.6 million lower than the balance of $127.7 million projected by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau in its most recent fund condition for the 2003-05 biennium published in January 2005. The change in the ending balance is the net result of a number of modifications since January 2005, including subsequent revenue reestimates by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau; lower tax collections and changes in non-tax revenues; separate legislation to increase appropriations (particularly for Medical Assistance); and higher payments for income tax credits. The undesignated ending balance of $4.1 million is $1.7 million lower than the fiscal year 2005 ending balance projected by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau in August 2005 in its fund condition for
2005 Wisconsin Act 25 (the 2005-07 biennial budget).
General-purpose revenue taxes were $11.397 billion compared to $10.739 billion in the prior year, an increase of $658 million or 6.1 percent. This increase was $52 million, or 0.5%, below the Legislative Fiscal Bureau May 2005 estimate of $11.449 billion. General-purpose revenue expenditures, excluding fund transfers, were $11.860 billion compared to $10.661 billion in the prior year, an increase of $1.199 billion or 11.2 percent.
In fiscal year 2005, the State of Wisconsin continued to devote the major share of state tax collections to assistance to local school districts, municipalities and counties. Local assistance accounted for 56.3 percent of total general purpose revenue spending. Aid payments to individuals and organizations represented 21.3 percent of total general purpose revenue expenditures. The University of Wisconsin accounted for 8.3 percent of total general purpose revenue spending and state operations spending for all other state agencies accounted for 14.1 percent of the total.
Wisconsin, along with many other states, continues to struggle with Medicaid costs and insufficient federal revenues. Under
2005 Wisconsin Act 15, the Legislature directed that a transfer of $75 million be made from the General Fund to the Medical Assistance Trust Fund. This amount was in addition to $123.5 million transferred in fiscal year 2004 and $50 million transferred in fiscal year 2005 under prior legislation.
Due to limited General Fund resources resulting from the revenue accounting adjustments and the slightly slower growth in general fund revenues in fiscal year 2005, this transfer has been divided between fiscal year 2005 and fiscal year 2006 pursuant to the authority under s.
16.52 (12), Wisconsin Statutes. In fiscal year 2005, $20 million was transferred from the General Fund to the Medical Assistance Trust Fund. The remaining $55 million was transferred in July 2005 (fiscal year 2006). For this reason, the Medical Assistance Trust Fund continues to carry a $53.9 million deficit at the end of fiscal year 2005. The July 2005 transfer will fully address the 2003-05 deficit in the Medical Assistance Trust Fund. Given the fiscal year 2005 closing balance of $4.1 million, the transfer of the entire $75 million prior to June 30, 2005, would have left the general fund with a $50 million deficit.
In the absence of any revisions to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau's May 2005 revenue estimates, the slightly lower than anticipated revenues combined with the adjustment to the fiscal year 2005 opening balance, reduce by $56.7 million the projected general fund ending balance for both fiscal years 2006 and 2007 under
2005 Wisconsin Act 25 (the 2005-07 biennial budget), as reported by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau. While still positive, these estimated fund balances are extremely small relative to the overall general fund budget.
The State of Wisconsin expects to publish its comprehensive annual financial report in December of 2005. The report will be prepared under generally accepted accounting principles.
Respectfully submitted,
Steve e. Bablitch
Secretary
William J. Raftery, CPA
State Controller
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