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Provides $53.5 million GPR in additional funding to support full implementation of the Student Achievement Guarantee in Education (SAGE) program, which reduces class size in grades kindergarten through three, bringing the total funding of SAGE to $95 million.
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Maintains existing level of state support for four-year-old kindergarten programs in public and choice schools.
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Provides an 18 percent increase in funding for the school breakfast program, which will allow for a significant expansion of participation rates.
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Provides a 10 percent increase in funding for the minority precollege scholarship program for middle and high school students to participate in challenging academic programs at Wisconsin's public and private colleges and universities.
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Creates a revenue limit adjustment for low enrollment districts with large geographical areas, which are experiencing declining enrollments.
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Provides $195,000 GPR to support student organizations related to career and technical education.
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Authorizes the University of Wisconsin-Parkside to create a charter school in the Racine school district.
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Provides $77.5 million in new GPR funding to the University of Wisconsin System, including $38 million GPR to support initiatives for the Madison and Milwaukee campuses and to make systemwide investments that will expand enrollments in information technology and biotechnology.
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Authorizes a BioStar initiative and $317 million in general fund supported borrowing over a ten-year period to attract federal and private funds for construction of biological sciences education and research activities at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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Provides $6.4 million GPR to the Higher Educational Aids Board and the University of Wisconsin System to increase need-based financial aid programs.
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Provides $500,000 to the University of Wisconsin Medical School for the purchase of a digital mammography machine.
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Authorizes the board of regents to use base funding to create GPR-funded faculty and academic staff positions.
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Provides an additional $500,000 GPR over the biennium to the Wisconsin Technical College System to increase the availability of high demand courses.
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Increases funding for vocational rehabilitation services by $2 million over the biennium, which will enable more of Wisconsin's disabled citizens to become part of Wisconsin's work force.
Human Resources
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Provides $2 million GPR in fiscal year 2001-02 and $49.9 million GPR in fiscal year 2002-03 to implement the new Senior Care program, beginning September 1, 2002. Senior Care is the new prescription drug assistance program for Wisconsin residents who are 65 years of age or older and who meet certain eligibility criteria. An estimated 260,000 individuals will be eligible, making the program one of the most generous in the country.
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Provides a $218 million increase to fully fund child care for both W-2 clients and for low-income working families.
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Provides $17.3 million GPR over the biennium to increase funding for the Community Option Program (COP) and Community Integration Program (CIP).
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Provides a $5 million GPR increase over the biennium for the Family Support and Birth to Three programs, which serve disabled children and their families.
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Provides an additional $32 million GPR over the biennium to fully fund the BadgerCare program, which is available to all low-income children and their parents not covered by Medical Assistance.
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Provides an additional $53 million SEG in fiscal year 2001-02 and $70 million SEG in fiscal year 2002-03 to nursing homes due in large part to their efforts to enhance the amount of federal intergovernmental transfer (IGT) funds received by the state.
•
Provides an additional $13.4 million SEG for hospitals and $12.3 million SEG for noninstitutional providers over the biennium as a result of the receipt of the new IGT funds.
Justice
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Provides funding to staff the following new and expanded correctional facilities: Stanley, New Lisbon, an expansion at Taycheedah, two inmate workhouses (located at Winnebago and Sturtevant), an addition to the Oshkosh segregation unit and the new Sturtevant Probation and Parole Holding Facility.
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Provides $4.6 million GPR to increase purchase of services for offenders in the community.
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Provides $4.2 million GPR to add 56.5 FTE probation and parole agents. The additional agents will provide an average agent to offender ratio of one agent to supervise 47 offenders.
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Provides additional resources for inmate health care needs including: the new Highview geriatric facility for male inmates, a new mental health unit for female inmates at the Taycheedah Facility, twenty additional nursing positions and staffing for 24-hour nursing coverage at the Columbia, Oakhill and Taycheedah facilities.
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Provides $3 million GPR to increase funding for Youth Aids payments to counties. Youth Aids fund the cost of placements to juvenile correctional facilities and other juvenile delinquency related services.
•
Provides $3.5 million to improve the state's Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS).
S287
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Provides $450,000 GPR to increase reimbursement to counties for court interpreter services.
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Provides $1.2 million of federal Byrne grant funds for a diversion program to encourage criminal justice agencies to collaboratively develop alternatives to incarceration for certain types of offenders.
State Government Operations
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Creates a new agency, the Department of Electronic Government, to strengthen the state's ability to plan and manage its information technology resources.
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Provides $180 million to the general fund through eliminating vacancies, realizing savings from recent changes to the state retirement system and implementing five percent reductions in state operations appropriations to ensure a balanced budget.
•
Enhances recruitment and retention in the Wisconsin National Guard by retaining a 100 percent tuition reimbursement program through a partial veto.
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Adds funding and positions to improve veterans benefits counseling.
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Provides $45,000 annually for additional veterans benefits fairs and promotions.
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Increases tuition and fee reimbursement from 65 percent to 85 percent for veterans college and part-time study grant programs.
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Increases veterans emergency assistance grants funding by $755,100.
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Authorizes 28.0 FTE positions and funding to staff the Southern Wisconsin Veterans Retirement Center.
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Expands veterans assistance centers by funding a new facility in Madison and expanding those at King and Southern Wisconsin Veterans Retirement Center.
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Increases funding by $400,000 to support transportation services for disabled veterans.
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Funds a grant of $200,000 to help establish a Milwaukee Veterans War Memorial Education Center.
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Adds 3.0 FTE and funding to strengthen enforcement in regulation and licensing.
There are also several budget provisions I did not veto that warrant discussion.
1.
Shared Revenue – The budget bill includes one percent annual increases in each of the next two years for local government shared revenue and related programs. Specifically, the bill includes a one percent increase for the 2002 payments for shared revenue, expenditure restraint, small municipality shared revenue and county mandate relief. Another one percent increase is provided to these same programs for the 2003 payments. The municipal shared revenue increases will be distributed across-the-board. Each municipality in 2002 and 2003 will receive a one percent increase over its prior year payment.
While I am approving these increases, we must not diminish our efforts to restructure the shared revenue formula. Instead, we should continue the rethinking of this billion dollar program begun by the Governor's Blue Ribbon Commission on State-Local Partnerships under Professor Don Kettl's visionary leadership. Consistent with the commission's goals, we must remake shared revenue to reward performance, increase accountability, eliminate incentives to spend, encourage cooperation and move Wisconsin toward a more competitive tax environment.
2.
Property Tax Exemptions and Municipal Services – The budget bill includes a provision that clarifies exemptions for YMCA and YWCA facilities from local property taxes due to their status as charitable organizations. While I am very supportive of the services provided by these organizations, I am also very concerned about the impact these exemptions have on a competitive business environment. The budget also authorizes local governments to assess charges on tax-exempt organizations for certain services provided by a municipality, such as fire protection. I have used my veto power to remove this provision because it was meant to work within the broader package of reforms offered by the Kettl Commission and included in my budget, but not adopted by the Legislature. We must make progress on assigning appropriate tax status to certain organizations and implementing cost recovery mechanisms for local governments. I hope to build on the important progress made by the Kettl Commission in these policy areas and move toward meaningful change on issues of property tax exemptions, free market competition and municipal cost recovery issues.
3.
Prescription Drugs – This budget includes a new prescription drug benefit for Wisconsin seniors that leads the nation. Clearly, the prescription assistance program will meet a critical need for many low-income seniors. However, given the deficit we face in developing the 2003-05 budget, I am concerned about the program being considered an entitlement requiring increased funding every biennium. The Legislature designed the program so that if funding is insufficient to meet demand in any given year, the Department of Health and Family Services is required to create waiting lists. I am directing the department to lay out a clear and equitable process to address this legislative mandate in its administrative rules.
4.
Chiropractic Claims – The budget bill includes a provision that defines claims for payment of chiropractic services, with certain exceptions, as being overdue if not paid within thirty days after the insurer receives clinical documentation. My understanding is that property and casualty insurance or workers' compensation claims should not have been included in this requirement. I have requested the Commissioner of Insurance to work with affected parties to introduce separate legislation to clarify that this provision only applies to health insurance claims and not to property and casualty insurance or workers' compensation claims.
5.
Child Care Subsidies – Child care assistance is one of the key priorities for use of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funding. However, we must not forget that the top priority for TANF funding is the Wisconsin Works (W-2) program. I am concerned that we may not always be able to fund growth in child care subsidies at the expense of the W-2 contracts and other related W-2 programs. In order to set priorities, the Legislature will, at some point, have to adopt the language I proposed allowing the administration to control child care expenditures through administrative means if the need arises.
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6.
Recycling – The budget bill increases the state recycling tipping fee to $3.00 and provides $24.5 million annually for municipal recycling grants in the 2001-03 biennium. At this level of support for local recycling programs, Wisconsin has the most generous subsidy in the country. While I do not believe that tipping fees are the best funding source to support recycling costs, I am concerned that many out-of-state communities neighboring Wisconsin view our state as a dumping ground. A review of the average total tipping fees at out-of-state landfills located near Wisconsin's borders point to these landfills using tipping fees to discourage the dumping of Wisconsin waste. Wisconsin's average total tipping fee is $38 per ton, and ranges from $16 per ton to $80 per ton. Average total tipping fees in Minnesota, Illinois and Michigan landfills near our state lines are $54, $44 and $63 per ton, respectively. The range of tipping fees in Illinois varies from $25 to $152, with many of the higher cost landfills close to our border. I have retained the increase in the tipping fee to discourage other states from viewing Wisconsin as a dumping ground for their garbage.
However, I am not convinced that increasing expenditures for the current recycling programwill automatically lead to improvements in the amount of waste being recycled. Several other states have produced better results with less state support. I encourage the Department of Natural Resources to carefully review the recycling program here, and in other states, and develop a proposal for the 2003-05 biennial budget that will lead to better results without increasing expenditure levels.
7.
Light Rail – The budget bill contains an extension of the prohibition on use of state or federal Interstate Cost Estimate (ICE) funds for costs related to light rail to June 30, 2002. I am not vetoing this provision, but I expect that the extension of this sunset will not affect the completion of the Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee Transit Corridor Alternatives Analysis study that is being undertaken by the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission. The use of the federal ICE funds allocated to several of the local governments in southeastern Wisconsin is governed by an agreement signed by those local governmental units. The state is not a party to those agreements and should not prevent implementation of those agreements.
I also want to commend the Legislature for improving its timeliness in completing a budget, limiting growth in spending and adopting measures I proposed to improve the state's fiscal stability. However, there is much more we can do to improve the budget process to ensure taxpayer dollars are used more efficiently to grow our economy, improve educational quality and create high skill, high wage employment. I will carefully consider such changes in my next budget.
Our state is rich in so many ways: abundant natural resources, a world class higher and elementary education system, a burgeoning technology economy, and an excellent quality of life. Wisconsin citizens also provide considerable resources to support programs at the state and local level. The bill I am signing seeks to ensure that we use those resources wisely now and in the future.
Respectfully submitted,
Scott McCallum
Governor
2001-03 BUDGET VETO MESSAGE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A. EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HIGHER EDUCATIONAL AIDS BOARD
1. Minority Undergraduate Retention Grant Program
2. Study on State Payment of Two Years of Postsecondary Education
3. Academic Excellence Scholarships for International Baccalaureate Degree Students
MEDICAL COLLEGE OF WISCONSIN
4. Domestic Abuse Training Requirements
PUBLIC INSTRUCTION
5. Delay of $115,000,000 of School Aids to July 2003
6. Revenue Limit Flexibility
7. Four-Year-Old Kindergarten Membership
8. High School Graduation Test
9. Calculator Use on Statewide Fourth-Grade Examination
10. Study on School Financing
11. Special Education Study
12. University of Wisconsin Special Education Study
13. Minority Group Pupil Scholarships
14. Wisconsin Educational Opportunity Program Study
15. Aid to Public Library Systems
16. Library Service Contracts
17. Wisconsin Educational Services Program for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
18. Base Budget Reduction
TEACH WISCONSIN
19. Museum Eligibility for Telecommunications Access Program Services
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN SYSTEM
20. Nonresident Student Tuition and Base Reduction
21. Transfer of Credits Between the University of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Technical College System
22. Sex Offender Notification
