Secretary
Referred to committee on Ways and Means.
__________________
State of Wisconsin
Department of Administration
Madison
August 15, 2000
To the Honorable, the Legislature:
Chapter
34, Laws of 1979, requires that when the Department of Administration maintains an office in Washington, D.C., for the purpose of promoting federal/state cooperation, it should submit a report detailing the activities of the office and reporting the status of federal legislation of concern to the Legislature and other state agencies (Wis. Stats. 16.548(2)).
The report for the period April, 2000, through June, 2000, is attached.
Sincerely,
George Lightbourn
Secretary
Referred to committee on State Affairs.
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State of Wisconsin
Department of Revenue
Madison
August 25, 2000
To the Honorable, the Assembly:
The Benevolent Retirement Home for the Aged Task Force was created under
1997 Wisconsin Act 27 to investigate the property tax exemption for benevolent retirement homes and all problems that are associated with it.
The task force has completed its work. The reports to be submitted in the manner provided under s.
13.172(2), Wis. Stats., are attached. One report is submitted on behalf of the five members representing the not-for-profit perspective. The other report (entitled "The Government 5 Report") is submitted on behalf of the five members representing for-profit facilities and taxing jurisdictions.
Other attachments include a Department of Revenue Staff Summary of the work of the task force and an appendix consisting of presentations at task force meetings and materials distributed to members.
Sincerely,
Tom Ourada
Executive Assistant
Referred to committee on Ways and Means.
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State of Wisconsin
Department of Natural Resources
Madison
September 1, 2000
To the Honorable, the Assembly:
Subject: Study of the States Program for Regulating the Land Application of Septage
Pursuant to
1999 Wisconsin Act 9 section
9136 (7), the Department is required to study the state's program for regulating the application of septage to land and submit a report presenting the results of the study to the Legislature in the manner provided in section
13.172 (2) of the statutes.
A992
That study, the
Audit Report of DNR Septage Management Program, prepared by Dr. Aga Razvi of the UW-Stevens Point College of Natural Resources is attached. The Department believed it best to contract the program audit to an independent neutral party.
Dr. Razvi attempted to contact as many parties involved in various aspects of the septage program as possible to gain a panoramic perspective of the issues and the effectiveness of DNR's oversight. This included County staff, septage pumpers, publicly owned treatment works representatives, DNR staff and Town chairpersons.
The Department believes the audit contains numerous beneficial recommendations. The audit particularly emphasizes that the Department has inadequate staff assigned to the septage program to ensure effective oversight. The conclusions bear out recommendations which have been proposed through several Department initiatives over the past several years. The Department had requested additional staff as part of a far-reaching septage proposal including a funding mechanism in the 1999-2001 biennial budget. While maintenance of septic systems was beyond the scope of this audit, it was a major portion of the Department budget proposal and is a component which may merit further examination.
Please feel free to contact Greg Kester of my staff at 608-267-7611, if you have any questions or comments regarding the enclosed report, or if you would like additional copies.
Sincerely,
George E. Meyer
Secretary
Referred to committee on Environment.
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Agency Reports
Southeast Wisconsin
Professional Baseball Park District
Milwaukee
August 17, 2000
To the Honorable, the Legislature:
Enclosed please find the Miller Park Monthly Progress Report for the month of July 2000 for your review and consideration. As the enclosed report indicates, Miller Park continues to develop with the District Board's objectives of building the premier baseball facility in the country; scheduled for play on Opening Day 2001; within budget; and with meaningful community participation.
As always, please feel free to contact me if you should have any questions or comments regarding the enclosed report.
Very truly yours,
Michael R. Duckett, P.E., R.l.s.
Executive Director
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State of Wisconsin
Legislative Audit Bureau
Madison
August 25, 2000
To the Honorable, the Legislature:
We recently completed a financial audit of the Mendota and Winnebago Mental Health Institutes for the period July 1, 1998 through June 30, 1999. The audit was requested by the Department of Health and Family Services to comply with requirements of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals. We were able to express an unqualified opinion on each Institute's financial statements. These statements show that, on an accrual basis, Mendota Mental Health Institute had net income of $787,000 and Winnebago Mental Health Institute had net income of $2.6 million.
For several years, the Department did not maintain an adequate system to accumulate accurate and reliable information on patient revenues and outstanding patient accounts receivables and to summarize that information for financial reporting purposes. In January 1999, the Department began implementing a new billing and receivable system; however, the new system is not yet able to produce receivable balances that we can rely upon for financial statement purposes. Most significantly, the process to determine and establish beginning receivable balances in the new system has not been completed. In addition, patient billings for April through June 1999 were delayed six months. As a result, there is increased risk that net patient revenues and net patient accounts receivable are misstated in the financial statements.
We anticipate that as the Department completes its analysis of receivable balances and continues to work with the software vender to address system issues, the information on the new system will be more reliable and will allow for more accurate reporting of the Institutes' patient receivable balances in the future. However, we recommend in a management letter to the Department that it take additional steps to increase accounting staff's familiarity with information available from the new system and how that information can be used in the financial reporting process.
We appreciate the courtesy and cooperation extended to us by Department of Health and Family Services staff during our audit.
Respectfully submitted,
Janice Mueller
State Auditor
