· 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.
· Authorizes 6.0 FTE assistant district attorney positions in Milwaukee County to be designated as special assistant U.S. attorneys to prosecute gun violations in federal courts under Project Ceasefire.
· Increases resources for law enforcement including investments in new DNA analysis methods at the state crime labs, expansion of the state DNA data bank to include all convicted felons, and provision of an additional $576,400 over the biennium for law enforcement training.
· Increases resources for criminal justice information systems to upgrade and maintain these systems, including additional funding for the Department of Corrections, the Circuit Court Automation Program (CCAP), the State Public Defender, the automation of district attorneys’ offices and the development of integrated justice information systems projects.
· Increases funding for Youth Aids by providing an additional $6 million GPR over the biennium.
· Increases funding for the Serious Juvenile Offender (SJO) program by providing an additional $4,160,200 GPR over the biennium.
· Increases funding for Circuit Court Support Payments by providing an additional $4,500,000 GPR over the biennium.
State Government Operations
· Provides $232,000 GPR annually for grants to local housing organizations to fund projects similar to Madison’s Operation Fresh Start program.
· Provides $1.5 million (SEG) to continue automating information systems in the Department of Employe Trust Funds to improve service to employers and participants.
· Creates a private employer health care coverage program and purchasing alliance, providing small businesses a means to offer group health coverage for their employes.
· Adds $420,000 GPR to continue state support of the Department of Military Affairs’ Youth Challenge program for young adults aged 16 to 18 who are high school dropouts or truants who will not graduate from high school.
· Redefines Wisconsin residency requirements making more veterans eligible to receive benefits from most state veterans programs.
· Adds $213 million in bonding authority for the veterans home loan program.
· Authorizes bonding and operating support for a second veterans home in Southeast Wisconsin.
· Increases funding by $568,600 biennially for the veterans health care aid grant program, $218,200 for employment and training programs and $104,200 for subsistence aid grants.
There are also several budget provisions I did not veto that warrant discussion.
1. Summer School Enrollment – Beginning in 2000-01, the bill allows school districts to increase their revenue limits to recognize 40% of their summer school enrollment. Notwithstanding this increase, I will propose rolling back the increase to 25% in future legislation because I believe this lower percentage more accurately reflects the increased spending authority school boards require to provide summer instruction.
2. Public Library System Aids – The budget provides $2,000,000 GPR over the biennium to increase public library systems aid. I am approving this aid with the expectation that the Northern Waters Library Service apply any systems aid increase it receives to the continuation of bookmobile services within the library system's boundaries.
3. School Start Date – The budget prohibits school boards from beginning the school term prior to September 1, unless the school board holds a public hearing on the issue and passes a resolution specifying a date earlier than September 1. While I am concerned about the provision allowing school boards to opt out of the requirement, in an effort to resolve the stalemate that delayed passage of this bill, I agreed to sign this provision into law without any changes. However, I will be introducing legislation to modify the opt-out mechanism in a manner that protects educational quality for students and equitably balances the prerogatives of school boards and the interests of the state’s tourism industry. In addition, I urge school boards not to opt out of the September 1 start date due to the need for consistent start dates statewide.
4. Respite Care – The budget bill contains funding for a private nonprofit organization to conduct life-span respite care projects in five regions of the state. I have not vetoed the funding despite my reservations about creating a new long-term care service when one of the objectives of Family Care is to consolidate current funding for long-term care programs. Thus, I am directing the Department of Health and Family Services secretary to coordinate this new respite care program with the Family Care pilots.
5. Video Gambling Machines – Currently there is inconsistent enforcement of video gambling machine laws across the state. In response, the Legislature has now reduced the penalty for having five or fewer of these machines in a tavern. While operating gaming machines in taverns is illegal, it should not rise to the level of imprisonment, especially in an already crowded prison system. I also intend to come back with a proposal to reduce the number of gaming machines that would fall under the misdemeanor penalty from five to three. This change should create more uniformity in the prosecution of minimal gaming activities and make the penalty fit the crime. In the future, I still feel gaming machines should be licensed, regulated and taxed in Wisconsin.
6. TIF Laws – I am concerned with the frequency of case-by-case exemptions from the tax incremental financing (TIF) law contained in this budget and in prior legislation. Resorting to such case-by-case exceptions and exemptions undermines the serious purpose of the original law – targeted and focused economic development. Such frequent tampering with the law’s general provisions suggests the tax incremental finance law needs reform. I am requesting the Department of Revenue secretary to convene a working group to study the TIF law and recommend needed revisions.
7. Light Rail –The budget contains a bipartisan agreement that prohibits local governments from expending certain federal and state transportation funding for contracts related to a light rail transit system. This provision sunsets at the end of the 1999-2001 biennium and responds to the multiple perspectives concerning any implementation of this transit alternative in Milwaukee. Furthermore, this provision does not apply to either the Kenosha trolley system that is under construction nor the study of transit alternatives associated with the Highway 12 agreement in Dane and Sauk counties. In addition, as an independent authority, the Wisconsin Center district is not limited by this provision in its efforts to conduct a downtown Milwaukee connector study.I also intend, in cooperation with Wisconsin’s Congressional delegation, to make it clear to the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) that the $241 million of federal Interstate Cost Estimate funding must be released in a timely manner to support several key Milwaukee projects, including reconstruction of the Sixth Street Viaduct. Federal legislation released one-half of these funds to state oversight and the other half to joint state and local oversight. In keeping with federal law, implementation of the agreement reached on use of this funding should not be hindered by USDOT.
I also believe while the final product of the budget deliberations was positive, the budget process left much to be desired and needs to be improved. I will consider proposing changes to the process in my next budget.
The budget I am signing represents a transition from the 20th Century to the 21st Century. The budget also provides a foundation for our state’s future, a future with unlimited potential in which our taxes are competitive with other states, our schools are the best in the nation and all our citizens find productive employment. That future begins today.
Respectfully submitted,
TOMMY G. THOMPSON
Governor
Date: October 27, 1999
VETO MESSAGE
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