Assembly Chief Clerk
17 West Main Street, Suite 401
Madison, WI 53708
Dear Chief Clerk Fuller:
I was excused from session on April 17, 2007 and was unable to vote. I am writing to inform you of how I would have cast my vote had I been in attendance. Please include this information in the Assembly Journal.
I would have voted “aye" on passage of the following proposals:
Assembly Bill 52
Assembly Bill 153
Thank you for your time and attention to this matter. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Shilling
State Representative
95th Assembly District
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April 19, 2007
Patrick Fuller
Assembly Chief Clerk
17 West Main Street, Suite 401
Madison, WI 53708
Dear Chief Clerk Fuller:
Please add my name as a co‐sponsor of Assembly Bill 190, relating to changing the individual income tax rates of taxation.
Sincerely,
Alberta Darling
State Senator
8th Senate District
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Referral of Agency Reports
Wisconsin Hospital Association
2005 Uncompensated Health Care Report
Madison
April 17, 2007
To the Honorable, the Legislature:
A135
Enclosed is a hard copy of the fiscal year 2005 Uncompensated Health Care Report produced by WHA Information Center pursuant to s.
153.22, Wis. Stats. The report was posted on our Web site in January 2007. Please feel free to download and print additional copies.
If you have any questions regarding the report you may contact me at 608‐274‐1820, 800‐231‐8340 or
jkachelski@wha.org.
Sincerely,
Joseph Kachelski
Vice President, WHA Information Center
Referred to committee on Health.
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Agency Reports
State of Wisconsin
Legislative Audit Bureau
Madison
April 17, 2007
To the Honorable, the Assembly:
We have completed a review of information technology (IT) projects that describes and provides cost and funding information for 184 projects in 28 executive branch agencies. We identified 103 projects that were completed in the past two fiscal years at an estimated cost of $90.6 million, and 81 projects that were ongoing at the start of fiscal year 2006‐07 and are expected to cost $201.1 million upon completion.
Individual projects with costs of $1.0 million or more represent 92.7 percent of the expected costs of ongoing projects. These large projects are typically complex and entail a significant risk of exceeding estimated costs and time lines. We note particular concerns with six ongoing projects that are expected to cost a total of $122.7 million upon completion and have already experienced difficulties.
In a detailed review of selected large, high‐risk projects, we found evidence of inadequate planning that increased costs and compromised timeliness. Estimated costs for one project to customize software for administering the Unemployment Insurance program increased by $18.7 million, and another project was suspended after $23.6 million had been spent. In addition, sales and use tax software with a cost of at least $24.9 million is being replaced only five years after implementation. Two statewide IT consolidation projects have experienced significant delays and cost overruns. A third, intended to replace approximately 100 types of administrative software and projected to cost at least $66.6 million upon completion, requires close monitoring.
The Department of Administration (DOA) has broad statutory authority to oversee and coordinate state IT projects. However, its oversight has been inadequate. We include recommendations to improve DOA's collaboration with other agencies in identifying high‐risk projects and establishing planning standards, including quantifiable performance measures. We also include recommendations to enhance legislative oversight of high‐risk IT projects.
We appreciate the courtesy and cooperation extended to us by officials and staff of DOA and other agencies. DOA's response follows the appendices.
Respectfully submitted,
Janice Mueller
State Auditor
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State of Wisconsin
Legislative Audit Bureau
Madison
April 17, 2007
To the Honorable, the Assembly:
We have followed up on the Department of Revenue's (DOR's) efforts to address concerns related to the processing and distribution of sales and use taxes through its Integrated Tax System (ITS), which was implemented in December 2002. In a letter report issued in December 2005, we summarized challenges DOR faced during implementation of the sales and use tax component of ITS, including an initial backlog in processing sales and use tax returns, various computer programming problems, and errors in distributions from the State to counties and professional sports districts that assess their own sales and use taxes. Difficulties in planning ITS are described in a review of state information technology projects (report 07‐5) that we are issuing today.
Our current analyses, together with work performed by the system's developer, indicate the errors we reported in December 2005 have been addressed effectively in ITS. This work provides reasonable assurance that ITS is accurately calculating counties' and two professional sports districts' shares of reported sales and use taxes.
To better understand sales and use tax trends, we analyzed and identified reasons for a decline in 2006 sales and use tax distributions to the Green Bay/Brown County Professional Football Stadium District. We found the decline was largely the result of lower sales and use taxes reported for the football stadium district; certain changes in sales and use tax law; and a reporting error by a single, large business entity.
In February 2007, DOR announced that ITS will be replaced with new software from a different vendor, at an estimated cost of $3.3 million. Given the challenges faced in implementing ITS, we believe continued oversight will be important to ensure accuracy in the processing and distribution of local governments' sales and use taxes. Our report includes a recommendation for reporting by DOR to the Joint Legislative Audit Committee.
We appreciate the courtesy and cooperation extended to us by DOR staff during our review.
Respectfully submitted,
Janice Mueller
State Auditor
