Environmental Protection and Resource Management
· Reauthorizes the Warren Knowles-Gaylord Nelson Stewardship 2000 Program at $460 million for the next decade, or $46 million annually, almost doubling the size of the current program.
· Continues state assistance for local recycling programs at the current levels.
· Provides $40 million to leverage up to $200 million of federal funds for farmer water quality and habitat improvement efforts through the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program.
· Increases funding for water quality protection efforts by 32% for rural nonpoint source pollution abatement projects and by 72% for urban nonpoint source pollution abatement, municipal flood control and riparian restoration projects.
· Enhances environmental cleanup and redevelopment efforts through expanded responsible and voluntary party exemptions from liability, additional site cleanup approval staff and implementation of the Brownfields Study Group recommendations.
· Improves the Petroleum Environmental Cleanup Fund Administration (PECFA) Program by authorizing $270 million in revenue bonds to reduce state interest costs, increasing claimant deductibles, reducing claimant interest rate cost reimbursements, implementing risk-based site assessment and cleanup processes and requiring competitive bidding for site cleanup activities.
· Provides over $3 million for local land use planning activities, establishes statewide local land use goals and links local land use activities to those goals through the new Smart Growth program.
· Provides nonuser fee support of $5 million for fish and wildlife programs from gaming compact revenues, and contains no increase in fish and wildlife fees.
· Increases public access to Lake Michigan and recreational opportunities in the City of Milwaukee by providing $9 million for development of Lakeshore State Park, the first new state park in 25 years.
Education and Training
· Creates a new Work-Based Learning Board, chaired by the Governor, which will consolidate and strengthen efforts to expand work-based learning activities statewide and adds $4 million GPR biennially to increase opportunities for students in the youth apprenticeship program.
· Provides $28 million GPR to the University of Wisconsin System (UWS) in fiscal year 2000-2001 to freeze tuition for Wisconsin resident undergraduate students for the 2000-2001 school year.
· Provides a $19 million GPR biennial increase to the UW-Madison to allow the UW System’s flagship campus to attract the best and brightest Wisconsin high school graduates, hire and retain the best faculty, continue cutting edge research and help maintain Wisconsin’s competitiveness in the global economy.
· Provides $16 million over the biennium in new GPR to support UW systemwide initiatives to expand the use of instructional technology, provide increased opportunities for students and faculty to study abroad, enhance library services and holdings, increase diversity and increase funding for Area Health Education Centers.
· Provides the Board of Regents of UWS with more flexibility to set tuition to take advantage of an expanded educational marketplace and new opportunities and methods to deliver educational programs.
· Provides $11.2 million over the biennium to increase financial aid programs for students at Wisconsin’s public and private universities and colleges.
· Provides $6.6 million to the Wisconsin Technical College System to create a new grant program that will provide $500 annually, for up to two years, to every recent high school graduate who attends a technical college full-time in an associate degree or technical training program.
· Increases general aid funding to the technical college system by $7.3 million over the biennium.
· Enhances the ability of Wisconsin technical colleges to expand and create programs and course sections in high skill occupational areas to address skilled workforce needs by providing $7.2 million GPR in two new grant programs.
· Maintains the state’s commitment to fund two-thirds of school costs by providing increases in state school aid of $237 million for the 1999-2000 school year and an additional $239 million in fiscal year 2000-01.
· Significantly expands the Student Achievement Guarantee in Education (SAGE) program to lower class size by providing $47.2 million (a 260% increase) in new GPR over the biennium, adding an estimated 400 schools to the program.
· Increases funding for school district special education programs by $53 million GPR over the biennium.
· Provides $5 million in fiscal year 2000-2001 to establish alternative education programs for students who are not achieving in traditional educational environments.
· Increases the low-spending revenue limit exemption for school districts from the 1998-99 level of $6,100 per pupil to $6,300 in 1999-2000 and $6,500 in 2000-2001.
· Adjusts the allowable increase in school district revenue limits from $209 per pupil in 1998-99 to an estimated $212 in 1999-2000 and $217 in 2000-2001.
· Makes permanent the 75% hold harmless provision for school districts experiencing declining enrollment.
· Provides $2 million to increase aid for public library systems by 11.3% over the biennium.
· Expands opportunities for middle and high school age minority students to attend precollege programs at Wisconsin postsecondary institutions by providing a $1.4 million GPR increase over the biennium to the UW System and DPI for precollege programs.
Human Resources
· Provides $9.8 million GPR over the biennium to fully fund existing Community Option Program (COP) placements and to add 581 additional placements.
· Provides an additional $11.3 million GPR to fund the Family Care pilot this biennium.
· Increases the SSI Caretaker Supplement program from $100 to $250 for the first child and from $100 to $150 for each additional child.
· Provides $56.6 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.
· Provides $7.9 million GPR over the biennium to fund a 5% nursing home wage pass-through initiative directed to nurse assistants.
· Provides $3.7 million GPR over the biennium to increase reimbursement for personal care workers from $11.50 per hour to $12.25 per hour.
· Provides $50 million in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds to create several new initiatives, including the Workforce Attachment Fund, Early Child Excellence Centers and Community Youth Grant programs to assist TANF families at all stages of life.
· Expands W-2 child care eligibility in several ways, including reducing the co-payment amount to no more than 12% of a family’s income, increasing eligibility to 185% of the federal poverty level, excluding certain types of income, eliminating the asset test and covering disabled children up to age 19.
· Includes provisions that protect the confidentiality of health care information of patients and providers.
Justice
· Increases funding for programs that assist victims of crime by $6.3 million over the biennium and creates the Office of Victim Services in the Department of Corrections.
· Provides resources to monitor, treat and evaluate sex offenders and to prosecute sex predators.
· Provides funding to staff the new 500-bed Supermax prison at Boscobel, the 750-bed Redgranite Correctional Facility, the 600-bed Milwaukee Probation and Parole hold/AODA facility, and initial start-up costs for the 375-bed New Lisbon Correctional Facility.
· Provides funding for 2,616 contract prison beds to help relieve prison overcrowding.
· Provides capital funding to expand, improve and acquire correctional facilities, including funding for two 150-bed work houses.
