ALL:all:all
1997 - 1998 LEGISLATURE
November 13, 1997 - Introduced by
Committee on Rules. Referred to Calendar.
AB606,4,5
1An Act to repeal 66.46 (6) (dm) 3. b. and 86.195 (2) (ag) 16m.;
to renumber and
2amend 48.685 (2) (b) 3. and 50.065 (2) (b) 3.;
to consolidate, renumber and
3amend 66.46 (6) (dm) 3. (intro.) and a.;
to amend 20.285 (1) (rc), 20.923 (1),
429.50 (1) (e), 44.72 (4) (b), 44.72 (4) (d), 46.81 (2), 46.81 (5), 48.561 (3) (a), 48.57
5(3p) (d), 48.685 (1) (a), 48.685 (2) (am) (intro.), 48.685 (2) (b) 1. (intro.), 48.685
6(2) (bg), 48.685 (2) (c), 48.685 (3) (a), 48.685 (3) (b), 48.685 (6) (b), 48.685 (7) (a),
749.141 (1) (p), 49.141 (7) (c) (intro.), 49.22 (2m), 49.45 (18) (b) 6., 50.065 (1) (b),
850.065 (1) (c) (intro.), 50.065 (1) (c) 3., 50.065 (2) (a) (intro.), 50.065 (2) (am)
9(intro.), 50.065 (2) (b) 1. (intro.), 50.065 (2) (bg), 50.065 (2) (c), 50.065 (3) (a),
1050.065 (3) (b), 50.065 (5) (intro.), 50.065 (5m), 50.065 (6) (a), 50.065 (6) (b),
1150.065 (7) (a), 59.53 (5), 66.46 (6) (c), 66.46 (7) (a), 70.375 (6), 71.06 (2s) (a), 71.07
12(2dx) (a) 5., 71.28 (1dx) (a) 5., 71.47 (1dx) (a) 5., 71.64 (9) (b), 78.58 (3), 118.51
13(4) (a) (intro.), 118.52 (4), 125.51 (3) (e) 3., 125.51 (4) (br) 1. b., c. and d., 146.40
14(4r) (am), 166.215 (5), 180.1130 (10m), 196.202 (1), 196.218 (3) (a) 3., 287.23 (3)
1(a) 2., 287.23 (5) (c) 2., 287.23 (7), 299.80 (16), 348.27 (9m) (a) 3., 560.785 (1) (c)
21., 560.785 (1) (c) 2., 565.05 (1) (intro.), 565.05 (1) (a), 565.17 (5) (a), 632.746 (2)
3(b), 973.09 (3) (bm) 3., 973.09 (3) (bm) 4., 980.06 (2) (c) and 980.08 (5);
to repeal
4and recreate 48.561 (3) (a), 49.155 (1m) (a) 1m., 77.53 (9m) and 77.54 (14) (f);
5to create 20.566 (1) (b), 36.54 (2) (f), 48.685 (5) (f), 48.685 (7) (am), 50.065 (1)
6(c) 6., 50.065 (2) (am) 5., 50.065 (2) (b) 1. e., 50.065 (5) (f), 50.065 (7) (am), 66.46
7(6) (dp) and 196.218 (5) (a) 7. of the statutes; and
to affect 1997 Wisconsin Act
827, section
9137 (9c) and
1997 Wisconsin Act 27, section
9143 (1m);
relating
9to: the application of the business combination and the control share voting
10restriction provisions of the business corporation law; dry cleaning fees; the
11regulation of providers of domestic public commercial mobile radio service;
12nontarget population members; pregnancy as a preexisting condition; the date
13by which certain school board resolutions pertaining to the open enrollment
14programs must be adopted; loans made to school districts by the technology for
15educational achievement in Wisconsin board; the method for calculating
16contributions to the universal service fund; use of the universal service fund to
17make grants to certain school districts for telecommunications access; financial
18assistance for local recycling programs; funding for a boat landing located on
19the Wisconsin River in the town of Buena Vista; grants awarded by the
20environmental education board that are related to forestry; the transportation
21and sale of fish; reports concerning the environmental cooperation pilot
22program; funding for air and solid and hazardous waste programs; studies of
23fish in the Great Lakes; restrictions on the placement of sexually violent
24persons who are granted supervised release; provision of information necessary
25for the administration of child support and economic support programs;
1copayments under the medical assistance program for specialized medical
2vehicle services; eligibility for child care subsidies under the Wisconsin works
3program; increased funding for the benefit specialist program for older
4individuals; the amount that a county having a population of 500,000 or more
5must contribute for the provision of child welfare services in that county by the
6department of health and family services; the photographing of a person
7applying for or receiving kinship care payments, of employes and prospective
8employes of a person applying for or receiving kinship care payments and of
9adult residents and prospective adult residents of the home of a person applying
10for or receiving kinship care payments; criminal history and abuse record
11searches of persons applying to the department of health and family services
12for a license, certification or registration to operate certain entities that care for
13children or adults and of employes, prospective employes, adult residents and
14prospective adult residents of those entities; eliminating cross-references to
15the Wisconsin works health plan; the indexing of the mining tax; computing the
16aviation fuel tax; a sales tax and use tax exemption for samples of medicine and
17registration for use tax purposes; tax increment sharing for tax incremental
18financing districts in Oshkosh that contain polluted soil; changing conflict of
19interest provisions and lottery participation restrictions that affect certain
20employes of the department of revenue; the department of revenue's expenses
21to administer the fee on vehicle rentals; the international fuel tax agreement;
22directing the department of revenue to not adjust individual income tax
23withholding tables and making a technical adjustment in the calculation of
24income tax liability by individual nonresidents and part-year residents of this
25state; weight limitations for vehicles and combinations of vehicles transporting
1bulk potatoes; specific information signs along STH 172; salary-setting
2authority of certain state bodies; reserve "Class B" intoxicating liquor licenses;
3the abolishment of the emergency response board; revocation of probation for
4failure to pay supervision fees owed to the department of corrections; and
5making an appropriation.
Analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau
COMMERCE
Wisconsin's business corporations law contains various provisions which
generally protect Wisconsin corporations from hostile take-overs. Prior to the
enactment of
1997 Wisconsin Act 27 (the budget act), these antitake-over provisions
used 2 different terms to describe the corporations to which these provisions applied.
Certain provisions applied to "resident domestic corporations"; others applied to
"issuing public corporations". The budget act revised these antitake-over provisions
to use the term "resident domestic corporation" throughout. However, the revised
definition inadvertently excludes publicly traded corporations and includes private
corporations, when the reverse was intended. This bill corrects this error and
modifies the definition of "resident domestic corporation" to apply only if the
corporation has a class of voting stock that is registered or traded on a national
securities exchange or that is registered under federal securities law.
Under current law, dry cleaners are subject to an annual fee of 1.8% of their
previous year's gross receipts. Under this bill, for the first year of the fee (1998) it
is equal to the gross receipts from the effective date of the 1997-98 biennial budget
act (October 14, 1997) to December 31, 1997.
Under current law, a cellular mobile radio telecommunications utility is not
subject to the same regulation by the public service commission as certain other
providers of telecommunications services. A "cellular mobile radio
telecommunications utility" is defined as a person authorized by the federal
communications commission (FCC) to provide domestic public commercial mobile
cellular radio telecommunications service under federal law.
This bill changes the definition of "cellular mobile radio telecommunications
utility" to mean a person authorized by the FCC to provide domestic public
commercial mobile radio service under federal law.
The department of commerce administers the development zone program.
Generally, after the department of commerce designates an area as a development
zone, a person that conducts economic development activity in the area is certified
by the department of commerce as eligible for certain tax credits. A person may claim
up to $6,500 in tax credits for creating or retaining a full-time job that is filled by an
individual who is a member of the target population and up to $4,000 in tax credits
for creating or retaining a full-time job that is filled by an individual who is not a
member of the target population. (Members of the target population are specifically
described in the statutes and targeted for economic benefit under the program.) This
bill specifies that the individuals who are not members of the target population must
be Wisconsin residents.
Under current law, a group health benefit plan, which is a health benefit plan
that is issued to an employer on behalf of a group that consists of at least 2 employes,
may not impose a preexisting condition exclusion related to pregnancy as a
preexisting condition. This bill qualifies that requirement by specifying that the
preexisting condition exclusion related to pregnancy may not be imposed for the
purpose of coverage of expenses related to prenatal and postnatal care, delivery and
complications of pregnancy.
Education
Under the full-time and part-time open enrollment programs, currently each
school board is required to adopt a resolution by December 1997 specifying various
school board criteria and policies relating to the programs.
This bill changes the date by which the resolution must be adopted to February
1, 1998.
Under current law, the technology for educational achievement in Wisconsin
board (the TEACH board) may make subsidized loans to school districts and to public
library boards for the purpose of upgrading the electrical wiring of school and library
buildings and for the purpose of installing and upgrading computer network wiring.
These subsidized loans are funded with public debt contracted by the state. Under
current law, the term of the state public debt used to fund the subsidized loans may
not exceed 10 years. This bill removes this restriction on the term of the public debt
used to fund the subsidized loans and instead provides that the term of the
subsidized loans made to school districts and public library boards may not exceed
10 years.
Under current law, the public service commission (PSC) must promulgate rules
establishing an educational telecommunications access program under which
certain educational entities, including private schools, are provided access to data
lines and video circuits. The educational entities are required to pay a certain
portion of the cost of such access. The costs in excess of this portion are paid from
the universal service fund, which is also used to fund certain other programs.
Certain telecommunications providers and other persons are required to contribute
to the universal service fund. The PSC must designate a method for calculating the
required contributions that ensures that the contributions are sufficient to pay the
cost of the educational telecommunications access program that is in excess of the
portion that is paid by educational entities that are not private schools.
Under this bill, the method for calculating the required contributions to the
universal service fund must also ensure that the contributions are sufficient to pay
the cost of the educational telecommunications access program that is in excess of
the portion that is paid by private schools.
Under current law, the technology for educational achievement in Wisconsin
board (board) awards grants from the universal service fund to certain school
districts to pay a portion of the costs incurred under certain contracts for
telecommunications access that the school districts entered into before October 14,
1997. The PSC is required to use the moneys in the universal service fund only for
specified purposes which do not include the grants awarded by the board to the school
districts. This bill specifies that the PSC may use the universal fund to make the
grants awarded by the board to school districts.
Environment and natural resources
Under current law, this state awards grants to local governmental units for the
operation of local recycling programs. The grants are funded through the year 2000.
This bill specifies that the eligibility requirements and the formula for
determining the amount of the grant for the year 2000 are the same requirements
and formula used for 1999. The bill also establishes the year 2000 as the sunset date
of the grant program.
This bill corrects a reference to the location of a boat landing for which Richland
County received funding under the recreational boating project program in the 1997
biennial budget act.
Current law authorizes the environmental education board to award grants to
nonprofit corporations and public agencies to develop, disseminate and present
environmental education programs. Moneys are appropriated from the conservation
fund for such grants that are related to forestry.
This bill allows the environmental education board to use up to 5% of the
amount appropriated from the conservation fund to administer the grants that are
related to forestry.
Under current law, state fish hatcheries, the propagation, transportation and
transplanting of fish by the department of natural resources (DNR), the removal of
deleterious fish by DNR, the transportation of fish in or out of the state by other
states or by the federal government and the transportation and sale of fish by any
person are exempt from any law that protects wild animals. This bill limits this
exemption for the transportation and sale of fish to those fish that are raised on fish
farms.
This bill eliminates 2 references in the statutes to the environmental
performance council, which was proposed to be created in the 1997 budget bill but
was deleted from the budget bill in the legislative process.
This bill also makes 2 minor adjustments in appropriations to DNR.
This bill provides funding to the department of natural resources to study fish
in the Great Lakes.
Social services
Currently, a person who is found by a jury or a judge to be be a sexually violent
person must be committed to the custody of the department of health and family
services (DHFS) for control, care and treatment. A sexually violent person is a
person who has committed certain sexually violent offenses and who is dangerous
because he or she suffers from a mental disorder that makes it substantially probable
that the person will engage in acts of sexual violence. A person found to be a sexually
violent person must be committed either to institutional care or for supervised
release to the community. A person initially committed to institutional care is placed
in a mental health facility by DHFS, but the person may later be given supervised
release if it is no longer substantially probable that the person will engage in acts of
sexual violence if he or she is not confined in a mental health unit or facility.
Generally, if a sexually violent person is given supervised release, the social
services department of the person's county of residence must prepare a plan
identifying the treatment and services the person will receive in the community. If
the county of residence declines to prepare such a plan, DHFS must try to arrange
for another county to prepare a plan for the person and accept the supervision and
residence of the person.
However, if DHFS cannot get another county to prepare a plan, the court must
designate a county to prepare a plan and place the person on supervised release in
that county, except that the court may not designate the county where the facility in
which the person was committed for institutional care is located unless that county
is also the person's county of residence.
This bill provides that if a sexually violent person is being given supervised
release and the court must designate a county to prepare a plan for and accept the
supervision and residence of the person, the court may not designate any county
where there is a facility in which persons are placed after being committed to
institutional care for being a sexually violent predator, regardless of whether the
person was actually placed in the facility of that county, unless that county is the
person's county of residence.
Under current law, the department of workforce development may request from
any person any information that it determines is appropriate and necessary for the
administration of child and spousal support programs and certain economic support
programs, such as aid to families with dependent children and medical assistance.
The person is required to provide the information within 7 days of receiving the
request. This bill adds the Wisconsin works program to the list of economic support
programs covered by the provision.
Under current law, certain specified services under the medical assistance
program are not subject to recipient cost sharing or "copayments", including
specialized medical vehicle services (SMV services) .
1997 Wisconsin Act 27 reduced
medical assistance benefits funding to reflect benefit savings from the creation of a
copayment for SMV services, but did not amend the statutory prohibition on
copayments for SMV services. This bill removes that statutory prohibition.
Under current law, an individual may receive a child care subsidy under the
Wisconsin works program for child care needed to obtain a high school diploma or to
participate in a course of study for a declaration of equivalency of high school
graduation (GED), if the individual meets certain eligibility requirements. Among
other things, the individual must be under 20 years of age and must reside in certain
types of supervised living arrangements. These supervised living arrangements
include residency with a custodial parent or a kinship care relative and residency in
a foster home, a group home or an independent living arrangement supervised by an
adult. This bill modifies these eligibility requirements so that the supervised living
arrangement requirement applies only to persons under 18.
Currently, DHFS must allocate $1,224,000 of general purpose revenues in each
fiscal year to county aging units to provide benefit specialist services for persons who
are aged at least 60. DHFS must also allocate $132,500 in each fiscal year to area
agencies on aging for training, supervision and legal back-up services for benefit
specialists. Under
1997 Wisconsin Act 27 (the biennial budget act), although the
appropriation amount for these purposes was increased, after partial veto, to provide
$2,348,400 in each fiscal year for elderly benefit specialist services, the statutes
authorizing this program were not correspondingly changed.
This bill requires DHFS to allocate $2,298,400 in general purpose revenues to
counties in each fiscal year to provide elderly benefit specialist services. The bill also
requires DHFS to allocate $182,500 in general purpose revenues to area agencies on
aging in each fiscal year for training, supervision and legal back-up services for
benefit specialists.
Under current law, on January 1, 1998, DHFS takes over from the Milwaukee
County department of social services the responsibility for providing child welfare
services in Milwaukee County. Current law requires Milwaukee County to
contribute $31,280,700 in state fiscal year 1997-98 and $62,561,400 in state fiscal
year 1998-99 for the provision of those services. This bill adjusts those amounts to
$30,489,200 in state fiscal year 1997-98 and $60,978,400 in state fiscal year
1998-99.
Under current law, a county department of human services or social services
(county department) must conduct a criminal background investigation of all
persons applying for kinship care payments (kinship care relatives), of all employes
and prospective employes of a kinship care relative who have or would have regular
contact with the child for whom the kinship care payments are being made and of all
adult residents and prospective adult residents of the home of a kinship care relative.
As part of the background investigation, the county department must require the
person being investigated to be photographed and fingerprinted, if the person is, or
within the last 5 years has been, a nonresident or if the county department
determines that there is a reasonable basis for further investigation. This bill
eliminates the requirement that a county department require a person meeting any
of those criteria be photographed.
Under current law, DHFS may not license a person to operate certain facilities
that provide care for children or adults (entities), for example, child caring
institutions, group homes, foster homes, day care centers, community-based
residential facilities and nursing homes, if DHFS knows or should know that the
person has been convicted of, or has pending against him or her a charge for, a serious
crime, as defined by DHFS by rule, that the person has been found to have abused
or neglected a client or a child or to have misappropriated the property of a client or,
if the person must be credentialed by the department of regulation and licensing
(DORL), that the person's credential is not current or is limited so as to prevent the
person from providing adequate care to a client, unless the person demonstrates that
he or she has been rehabilitated. Similarly, under current law, an entity may not hire
or contract with a person who will be under the entity's control and who is expected
to have access to the entity's clients and may not permit to reside at the entity a
person who is expected to have access to the entity's clients if the entity knows or
should know that any of those conditions apply to that person, unless the person
demonstrates that he or she has been rehabilitated. Current law requires DHFS to
obtain, with respect to a person applying for a license to operate an entity, and an
entity to obtain, with respect to a prospective employe, contractor or resident, a
criminal history search, information contained in the client abuse registry
maintained by DHFS, information maintained by DORL regarding the status of the
person's credentials, if applicable, and information maintained by DHFS regarding
any substantiated reports of child abuse or neglect against the person (criminal
history search and abuse record law).
This bill makes all of the following changes relating to the criminal history and
abuse record search law:
1. Extends the applicability of the law to prohibiting DHFS not only from
licensing, but also from certifying or registering a person to operate an entity if the
person is a person who may not be licensed under current law.
2. Limits the application of the law to children and adults who receive direct
care or treatment services from an entity and to entities that are licensed or certified
by, or registered with, but not otherwise regulated by, DHFS to provide direct care
or treatment to clients. The bill also excludes public health dispensaries from
coverage under the law.
3. Requires DHFS, in defining by rule "serious crime" for purposes of the law,
to include in that definition not only crimes involving abuse or neglect of a client for
which a person may not demonstrate that he or she has been rehabilitated, but also
crimes involving misappropriation of the property of a client or abuse or neglect of
a client for which a person may demonstrate that he or she has been rehabilitated.
The bill also requires DHFS to establish a separate list of crimes or acts involving
abuse or neglect of a client for which no person may demonstrate that he or she has
been rehabilitated. Under current law, the list of offenses for which no person may
demonstrate that he or she has been rehabilitated is limited to certain offenses listed
in the statutes.
4. Requires an entity to report to DHFS, for inclusion in the client abuse
registry, and to report to DORL, for purposes of credentialing a person,
misappropriation only of a client's property, and not of any property, by a person
employed by or under contract with the entity.
5. Transfers from the entity to DHFS the responsibility for investigating the
background of a resident or prospective resident of the entity who is expected to have
access to the entity's clients.
6. Includes among the information that DHFS must obtain in investigating the
background of a person applying for a license, certification or registration to operate
an entity for the care of adults and of a prospective resident of an entity and that an
entity providing care for adults must obtain in investigating the background of a
prospective employe or contractor, information regarding any previous denials of a
license, certification or registration or of employment, a contract or permission to
reside at an entity for a reason specified under current law. Under current law,
DHFS must obtain that information with respect to a person applying for a license
to operate an entity to provide care for children, but not for adults, and an entity that
provides care for children, but not for adults, must obtain that information with
respect to a prospective employe, contractor or resident.
7. Requires an entity, which under current law may obtain the information
required under current law with respect to a person from another entity or from a
temporary employment agency if the other entity or temporary employment agency
has already obtained that information with respect to that person within the last 4
years, to obtain updated information with respect to that person if the entity has
reasonable grounds to believe that the information obtained from the other entity or
temporary employment agency is no longer accurate.
1997 Wisconsin Act 27 (the budget act) eliminated the Wisconsin works health
plan. This bill eliminates cross-references to the Wisconsin works health plan that
erroneously remained in the budget act.
This bill also transfers 2 full-time general program revenue positions in DHFS
from the subunit of DHFS primarily concerned with general administration to the
subunit of DHFS primarily concerned with health services planning, regulation and
delivery.
Taxation and tax administration
This bill makes a technical change that indicates the indexing of certain
elements of the mining tax has occurred since 1983.
This bill makes a technical correction to make the administration of the
aviation fuel tax consistent.