AB770: Bill Text

LRB-3672/1

ARG:cjs:pg

2005 - 2006 LEGISLATURE

2005 Assembly BILL 770

October 20, 2005 - Introduced by Representatives Kestell, Albers, Davis, Gronemus, Jensen, LeMahieu, Nelson, Ott, Suder, Van Akkeren, Van Roy and Vruwink, cosponsored by Senators Leibham, Brown, Hansen and Schultz. Referred to Joint Committee on Finance.

AB770,2,9 An Act to renumber and amend 114.136 (2) (b); to amend 7.33 (1) (c), 13.172 (1), 13.62 (2), 13.94 (1) (b), 13.94 (1) (g), 13.94 (4) (a) 1., 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), 19.42 (5), 20.395 (2) (dq), 20.395 (2) (dv), 20.395 (2) (dx), 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), 560.032 (1), 893.80 (1), 893.80 (1g), 893.80 (3), 893.80 (4), 893.80 (5) and 893.80 (7); and to create 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 bill 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 bill, 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 bill provides WAA with numerous powers, including authorizing WAA to do all of the following:

1. Design, develop, and operate spaceports, aerospace facilities, and spacecraft.

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

1. Establish a spaceport in the city of Sheboygan.

2. 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.

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

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

5. 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.

6. 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 and estimate of costs and funding for design, development, and operation of initially planned spaceports, aerospace facilities, and spacecraft.

The bill 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 bill authorizes WAA to have no more than $100,000,000 in outstanding bonds at any one time. The bill creates an individual and corporate income tax exemption for interest on bonds issued by WAA.

Under the bill, state funding for WAA is provided from the Department of Transportation's (DOT) appropriation for airports and air navigation, but the bill does not provide any increase in this appropriation. Also under the bill, any project to acquire, construct, or improve a spaceport or spaceport facility, other than a hangar, must be funded from this DOT appropriation 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. Unlike other state-created authorities, WAA is not treated like a state agency in the following respects: 1) it is not subject to auditing by the Legislative Audit Bureau; and 2) the Code of Ethics for Public Officials and Employees does not cover 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 bill 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.

Current law provides limited immunity for volunteer fire companies, political corporations, governmental subdivisions and agencies thereof, and for officers, officials, agents, or employees of these entities, for acts done in an official capacity or in the course of employment. Claimants must generally follow a specified claims procedure and liability for damages is generally limited to $50,000 except that no liability may be imposed for performance of a discretionary duty or for punitive damages. This bill provides the WAA and its officers, agents, and employees with the same limited immunity.

This bill will be referred to the Joint Survey Committee on Retirement Systems for a detailed analysis, which will be printed as an appendix to this bill.

For further information see the state and local fiscal estimate, which will be printed as an appendix to this bill.

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

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

AB770,5,4 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, s. 2 Section 2. 13.172 (1) of the statutes is amended to read:

AB770,5,10 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, s. 3 Section 3. 13.62 (2) of the statutes is amended to read:

AB770,5,15 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, s. 4 Section 4. 13.94 (1) (b) of the statutes is amended to read:

AB770,6,11 13.94 (1) (b) Audit the records of every state department, board, commission, independent agency, or authority other than the Wisconsin Aerospace Authority at least once each 5 years and audit the records of other departments as defined in sub. (4) when the state auditor deems it advisable or when he or she is so directed and, in conjunction therewith, reconcile the records of the department audited with those of the department of administration. Audits of the records of a county, city, village, town or school district may be performed only as provided in par. (m). Within 30 days after completion of any such audit, the bureau shall file with the chief clerk of each house of the legislature, the governor, the department of administration, the legislative reference bureau, the joint committee on finance, the legislative fiscal bureau and the department audited, a detailed report thereof, including its recommendations for improvement and efficiency and including specific instances, if any, of illegal or improper expenditures. The chief clerks shall distribute the report to the joint legislative audit committee, the appropriate standing committees of the legislature and the joint committee on legislative organization.

AB770, s. 5 Section 5. 13.94 (1) (g) of the statutes is amended to read:

AB770,6,22 13.94 (1) (g) Require each state department, board, commission, independent agency, or authority other than the Wisconsin Aerospace Authority to file with the bureau on or before September 1 of each year a report on all receivables due the state as of the preceding June 30 which were occasioned by activities of the reporting unit. The report may also be required of other departments, except counties, cities, villages, towns and school districts. The report shall show the aggregate amount of such receivables according to fiscal year of origin and collections thereon during the fiscal year preceding the report. The state auditor may require any department to file with the bureau a detailed list of the receivables comprising the aggregate amounts shown on the reports prescribed by this paragraph.

AB770, s. 6 Section 6. 13.94 (4) (a) 1. of the statutes is amended to read:

AB770,7,13 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, except the Wisconsin Aerospace Authority, and including specifically the Fox River Navigational System 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, s. 7 Section 7. 16.002 (2) of the statutes is amended to read:

AB770,7,18 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, s. 8 Section 8. 16.004 (4) of the statutes is amended to read:

AB770,7,25 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.