Amendment ASA1-AB770

LRBs0343/1

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2005 - 2006 LEGISLATURE

ASSEMBLY SUBSTITUTE AMENDMENT 1, TO 2005 ASSEMBLY BILL 770

November 30, 2005 - Offered by Joint Committee on Finance.

AB770-ASA1,2,9 An Act to renumber and amend 114.136 (2) (b); to amend 7.33 (1) (c), 13.172 (1), 13.62 (2), 13.94 (4) (a) 1., 13.95 (intro.), 16.002 (2), 16.004 (4), 16.004 (5), 16.004 (12) (a), 16.01 (1), 16.045 (1) (a), 16.41 (4), 16.417 (1) (b), 16.52 (7), 16.528 (1) (a), 16.53 (2), 16.54 (9) (a) 1., 16.611 (2) (a) and (c), 16.70 (2), 16.75 (1m), 16.765 (1), (2), (4), (5), (6), (7) (intro.) and (d) and (8), 16.838 (1) (b), 16.85 (2), 16.865 (8), 23.175 (1) (b), 25.50 (1) (d), 32.01 (1), 32.05 (intro.), 71.26 (1) (be), 77.54 (9a) (a), 84.072 (3), 85.02 (1), 100.45 (1) (dm), 101.177 (1) (d), chapter 114 (title), 114.002 (1), 114.002 (3), 114.04, 114.05, 114.07, 114.105, 114.11 (title), 114.11 (1), (2), (3), (4) and (5) (intro.), 114.12, 114.13, 114.134 (title), 114.134 (1), (2), (3) and (4) (c), 114.135 (intro.), (1), (2), (3), (4), (6), (7) and (8), 114.136 (title), 114.136 (1) (a), (b) and (c), (2) (a), (3), (4) and (5), 114.151, 114.31 (1) and (4), 114.33 (12), 114.37 (title), 230.03 (3), 281.75 (4) (b) 3., 285.59 (1) (b) and 560.032 (1); and to create 19.42 (10) (q), 20.395 (2) (mq), 20.395 (2) (mv), 20.395 (2) (mx), 24.61 (2) (a) 10., 25.17 (3) (b) 13., 32.02 (11m), 40.02 (54) (j), 66.0603 (1m) (a) 3u., 70.11 (38m), 71.05 (1) (c) 7., 71.26 (1m) (h), 71.45 (1t) (h), subchapter I (title) of chapter 114 [precedes 114.001], 114.002 (11m), 114.002 (18r), (18s) and (18t), 114.375, subchapter II of chapter 114 [precedes 114.60] and 219.09 (1) (g) of the statutes; relating to: creating the Wisconsin Aerospace Authority to develop and operate spaceports and related facilities and services and other aerospace facilities and services and providing the authority with the power of condemnation, authorizing municipalities to develop and operate spaceports, and making an appropriation.

Analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau

This substitute amendment creates the Wisconsin Aerospace Authority (WAA) and authorizes WAA to develop spaceports, spacecraft, and other aerospace facilities in this state, to provide spaceport and aerospace services and allow use of spaceport and aerospace facilities by others, to promote the aerospace industry in this state, and to provide public-private coordination for the aerospace industry in this state. An authority is a public body created by state law that is not a state agency. There are currently a limited number of authorities created under state law, which include the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics Authority and Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority.

Under this substitute amendment, the board of directors of WAA consists of nine members. Six members of the board are appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the senate for three-year terms. One member is appointed by the president of the senate and one member is appointed by the speaker of the assembly, each for a three-year term. Each of these eight members must be a resident of this state and must have experience in the aerospace, education, finance, or commercial space industry or other significant experience related to the functions of WAA. The ninth member of the board is the director of the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium. A board member appointed by the governor may be removed from the board for cause and a board member appointed by the legislature is required to be removed from the board for two consecutive unapproved absences from board meetings. Board members are not compensated for their services, but receive reimbursement for actual and necessary expenses. The board must appoint an executive director, who may not be a member of the board and who may receive compensation for his or her services.

The substitute amendment provides WAA with numerous powers, including authorizing WAA to do all of the following:

1. Design, develop, and operate spaceports, aerospace facilities, and spacecraft, including establishing a spaceport in the city of Sheboygan.

2. Design, develop, and operate programs and projects, and provide services, related to spaceports, aerospace facilities, and spacecraft.

3. Acquire and dispose of real property, personal property, and intangible property rights and enter into contracts.

4. Issue bonds to fund any spaceport, facility, or service of WAA.

5. Exercise the right of eminent domain.

6. Maintain exclusive jurisdiction (except where federal or state law provides otherwise) over WAA spaceports.

7. Cooperate with other governmental units in furnishing any facility or service, including fire and police protection at a spaceport.

The substitute amendment also imposes a number of duties on WAA, including requiring WAA to do all of the following:

1. Promote the aerospace industry in this state, including advertising and promotion of WAA facilities and services and development, promotion, and attraction of space-related business in this state.

2. Provide and promote aerospace services, information, and business opportunities in this state.

3. Coordinate efforts of various governmental units and private parties interested in the promotion of space-related industry.

4. Develop a business plan to promote and facilitate spaceport-related educational and commercial development and to stimulate and improve aerospace science, design, technology, and research.

5. Annually report to the governor and legislature WAA's activities, receipts, expenditures, and financial condition; annually submit to the Department of Administration (DOA), for each fiscal year in which the authority receives operating revenues, an audited financial statement including detailed identification of funding sources; and submit once to DOA, and as DOA requests thereafter, a business plan, including proposed funding sources for capital expenditures by WAA, and estimate of costs and funding for design, development, and operation of initially planned spaceports, aerospace facilities, and spacecraft.

The substitute amendment authorizes WAA to issue bonds to carry out its functions if WAA submits a bond resolution to the governor and legislature and the legislature's Joint Committee on Finance does not schedule a meeting within 14 days on the bond resolution or schedules such a meeting and approves the bond resolution. WAA's bonds are not state debt. The substitute amendment authorizes WAA to have no more than $100,000,000 in outstanding bonds at any one time. The substitute amendment creates an individual and corporate income tax exemption for interest on bonds issued by WAA.

The substitute amendment creates state, federal, and local appropriations for the Department of Transportation (DOT) from the transportation fund for funding for WAA, but does not directly provide any funds. Under the substitute amendment, any project to acquire, construct, or improve a spaceport or spaceport facility, other than a hangar, must be funded from these DOT appropriations and from WAA's own funds. DOT and WAA must share the cost of the project, except that DOT's share of costs is limited to a maximum of $10,000,000 per project and is limited to 80 percent of the total project cost if federal aid is not available for the project or 50 percent of the total project cost in excess of federal aid if federal aid is available for the project. For each project, DOT determines the percentage of costs borne by DOT based on the relative importance of the project to any state spaceport development program as a whole.

Because WAA is not a state agency, numerous laws that apply to state agencies do not apply to WAA. However, as with many state-created authorities, WAA is treated like a state agency in the following respects, among others: 1) it is generally subject to the open records and open meetings laws; 2) it is treated like a state agency for purposes of the law regulating lobbying; 3) its employees may participate in the system for state retirement benefits and health insurance coverage; 4) it is exempt from sales and use taxes, property taxes, and income taxes; 5) its employees are subject to laws prohibiting political activities by state employees while engaged in official duties; 6) it is subject to auditing by the Legislative Audit Bureau and to access by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau; and 7) the Code of Ethics for Public Officials and Employees covers WAA.

WAA is unlike a state agency in many other ways, including: 1) it approves its own budget without going through the state budgetary process; 2) WAA employees are not state employees, are not included in the state system of personnel management, and are hired outside the state hiring system; 3) it is not subject to statutory rule-making procedures, including requirements for legislative review of proposed rules; 4) it keeps its operating fund in its own account outside of the state treasury; and 5) the state is not liable for any debt, obligation, or act of WAA and WAA expenses are paid from WAA's own funds.

The substitute amendment also expands certain provisions of law currently applicable only to airports and aircraft to apply to spaceports and spacecraft as well. These changes include: 1) treating aircraft and spacecraft similarly with regard to certain aspects of civil and criminal liability; 2) recognizing the authority of a county or municipality to establish, own, and operate a spaceport or spacecraft launch or landing area in the same manner as a county or municipal airport, landing field, or landing and take-off strip, including the right of condemnation and the right to protect aerial approaches; and 3) expanding an existing loan program administered by DOT to facilitate acquisition by local governments or airport owners of land for airport projects to include spaceport projects as well, but with a maximum total outstanding balance of loans for spaceport projects of $10,000,000 rather than the $6,500,000 for airport projects and with a different funding source.

The people of the state of Wisconsin, represented in senate and assembly, do enact as follows:

AB770-ASA1, s. 1 Section 1. 7.33 (1) (c) of the statutes is amended to read:

AB770-ASA1,5,3 7.33 (1) (c) "State agency" has the meaning given under s. 20.001 (1) and includes an authority created under subch. II of ch. 114 or ch. 231, 232, 233, 234, or 237.

AB770-ASA1, s. 2 Section 2. 13.172 (1) of the statutes is amended to read:

AB770-ASA1,5,9 13.172 (1) In this section, "agency" means an office, department, agency, institution of higher education, association, society or other body in state government created or authorized to be created by the constitution or any law, which is entitled to expend moneys appropriated by law, including the legislature and the courts, and any authority created in subch. II of ch. 114 or ch. 231, 233, or 234.

AB770-ASA1, s. 3 Section 3. 13.62 (2) of the statutes is amended to read:

AB770-ASA1,5,14 13.62 (2) "Agency" means any board, commission, department, office, society, institution of higher education, council or committee in the state government, or any authority created in subch. II of ch. 114 or ch. 231, 232, 233, 234, or 237, except that the term does not include a council or committee of the legislature.

AB770-ASA1, s. 4 Section 4. 13.94 (4) (a) 1. of the statutes is amended to read:

AB770-ASA1,6,5 13.94 (4) (a) 1. Every state department, board, examining board, affiliated credentialing board, commission, independent agency, council or office in the executive branch of state government; all bodies created by the legislature in the legislative or judicial branch of state government; any public body corporate and politic created by the legislature including specifically the Fox River Navigational System Authority and the Wisconsin Aerospace Authority, a professional baseball park district, a local professional football stadium district, a local cultural arts district and a family care district under s. 46.2895; every Wisconsin works agency under subch. III of ch. 49; every provider of medical assistance under subch. IV of ch. 49; technical college district boards; development zones designated under s. 560.71; every county department under s. 51.42 or 51.437; every nonprofit corporation or cooperative to which moneys are specifically appropriated by state law; and every corporation, institution, association or other organization which receives more than 50% of its annual budget from appropriations made by state law, including subgrantee or subcontractor recipients of such funds.

AB770-ASA1, s. 5 Section 5. 13.95 (intro.) of the statutes is amended to read:

AB770-ASA1,6,17 13.95 Legislative fiscal bureau. (intro.) There is created a bureau to be known as the "Legislative Fiscal Bureau" headed by a director. The fiscal bureau shall be strictly nonpartisan and shall at all times observe the confidential nature of the research requests received by it; however, with the prior approval of the requester in each instance, the bureau may duplicate the results of its research for distribution. Subject to s. 230.35 (4) (a) and (f), the director or the director's designated employees shall at all times, with or without notice, have access to all state agencies, the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics Authority, the Wisconsin Aerospace Authority, and the Fox River Navigational System Authority and to any books, records or other documents maintained by such agencies or authorities and relating to their expenditures, revenues, operations and structure.

AB770-ASA1, s. 6 Section 6. 16.002 (2) of the statutes is amended to read:

AB770-ASA1,6,22 16.002 (2) "Departments" means constitutional offices, departments and independent agencies and includes all societies, associations and other agencies of state government for which appropriations are made by law, but not including authorities created in subch. II of ch. 114 or chs. 231, 232, 233, 234, 235, and 237.

AB770-ASA1, s. 7 Section 7. 16.004 (4) of the statutes is amended to read:

AB770-ASA1,7,4 16.004 (4) Freedom of access. The secretary and such employees of the department as the secretary designates may enter into the offices of state agencies and authorities created under subch. II of ch. 114 or chs. 231, 233, 234, and 237, and may examine their books and accounts and any other matter which in the secretary's judgment should be examined and may interrogate the agency's employees publicly or privately relative thereto.

AB770-ASA1, s. 8 Section 8. 16.004 (5) of the statutes is amended to read:

AB770-ASA1,7,9 16.004 (5) Agencies and employees to cooperate. All state agencies and authorities created under subch. II of ch. 114 or chs. 231, 233, 234, and 237, and their officers and employees, shall cooperate with the secretary and shall comply with every request of the secretary relating to his or her functions.

AB770-ASA1, s. 9 Section 9. 16.004 (12) (a) of the statutes is amended to read:

AB770-ASA1,7,17 16.004 (12) (a) In this subsection, "state agency" means an association, authority, board, department, commission, independent agency, institution, office, society or other body in state government created or authorized to be created by the constitution or any law, including the legislature, the office of the governor and the courts, but excluding the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics Authority, the Wisconsin Aerospace Authority, and the Fox River Navigational System Authority.

AB770-ASA1, s. 10 Section 10. 16.01 (1) of the statutes is amended to read:

AB770-ASA1,7,23 16.01 (1) In this section, "agency" means any office, department, agency, institution of higher education, association, society or other body in state government created or authorized to be created by the constitution or any law which is entitled to expend moneys appropriated by law, including the legislature and the courts, and any authority created under subch. II of ch. 114 or ch. 231, 233 or 234.