Wednesday, October 27, 1999
Ninety-Fourth Regular Session
The Chief Clerk makes the following entries under the above date:
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Assembly amendment 1 to Assembly Bill 402 offered by Representative F. Lasee.
Assembly amendment 1 to Assembly Bill 414 offered by committee on Health.
Assembly substitute amendment 1 to Assembly Bill 431 offered by committee on Judiciary and Personal Privacy.
Assembly amendment 2 to Assembly Bill 487 offered by committee on Judiciary and Personal Privacy.
Assembly substitute amendment 1 to Assembly Bill 496 offered by committee on Children and Families.
Assembly amendment 1 to Assembly substitute amendment 1 to Assembly Bill 496 offered by committee on Children and Families.
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Read first time and referred:
Assembly Bill 561
Relating to: the possession of barbed hooks while fishing.
By
joint committee for review of Administrative Rules.
To committee on Natural Resources
.
Assembly Bill 562
Relating to: creating a southeast Wisconsin crime abatement task force.
By
committee on Criminal Justice.
To committee on Criminal Justice
.
Assembly Bill 563
Relating to: the creation of a new type of financial institution; the powers of and requirements applicable to these financial institutions; providing an exemption from emergency rule procedures; and granting rule-making authority.
By
Representatives Jeskewitz, Rhoades, Kelso, Ward, Riley, F. Lasee, Huebsch, Plale, Jensen, Kestell, Ladwig, Staskunas, Montgomery, Hahn, Spillner, Owens, Ziegelbauer, Vrakas, Gronemus, Stone, Duff, Kedzie, Miller, Hoven, Leibham, Olsen, Hundertmark, Reynolds, Suder, Pettis, Walker, Klusman, Sykora, Grothman, Kreibich and Lassa; cosponsored by Senators Moore, Fitzgerald, Welch, Darling, Rosenzweig, Lazich, Rude, Drzewiecki, Farrow and Zien.
To committee on Financial Institutions
.
Assembly Bill 564
Relating to: providing a public school for a pupil that is accessible by the pupil's disabled parent.
By
Representatives Sinicki, Black, Berceau, Young, Boyle, Pocan, Miller, Riley and Richards; cosponsored by Senators Grobschmidt and Drzewiecki.
To committee on Education.
Assembly Bill 565
Relating to: requiring insurance coverage of the diagnosis and treatment of infertility and prohibiting collective bargaining by the state with respect to the requirement.
By
Representatives Wasserman, Black, Bock, Musser and Reynolds; cosponsored by Senators Grobschmidt, Darling and Risser.
To committee on Health.
Assembly Bill 566
Relating to: employe supervision by real estate brokers and requiring the exercise of rule-making authority.
By
Representatives Wieckert, Spillner, Sykora, Porter, Hahn, Schooff, Vrakas, Kestell, F. Lasee, Pocan and Meyer; cosponsored by Senators Clausing, Fitzgerald, Roessler and Rude.
To committee on Housing.
Assembly Bill 567
Relating to: granting high school diplomas to certain veterans.
By
Representatives Plouff, Musser, Sherman, Bock, Goetsch, Gronemus, Gunderson, Gundrum, Hebl, Huber, Hundertmark, Kreuser, Krug, Ladwig, J. Lehman, Meyer, Miller, Montgomery, Olsen, Pettis, Riley, Ryba, Seratti, Suder, Sykora, Turner, Wasserman and Waukau; cosponsored by Senators Moen, Breske, Chvala, Fitzgerald, Erpenbach, Clausing, Darling, Welch, Farrow, Rude, Drzewiecki, Wirch, Zien, Burke and Decker.
To committee on Education.
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Reference Bureau Corrections
Assembly Substitute Amendment 1 to Assembly Bill 312
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1. Page 4, line 18: delete "
All of the following" and substitute "
. All of the following".
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Executive Communications
State of Wisconsin
Office of the Governor
Madison
October 27, 2001
To the Honorable Members of the Assembly:
The following bill, originating in the Assembly, has been approved, signed and deposited in the office of the Secretary of State:
Bill Number Act Number Date Approved
AB 133 (partial veto)9October 27, 2001
Respectfully submitted,
Tommy G. Thompson
Governor
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Governor's Veto Message
State of Wisconsin
Office of the Governor
Madison
October 27, 1999
To the Honorable Members of the Assembly:
I have approved
Assembly Bill 133 as
1999 Wisconsin Act 9 and deposited it in the Office of the Secretary of State.
The signing of this budget bill continues our efforts to reduce taxes in Wisconsin. Making tax reductions our number one priority will help all taxpayers throughout Wisconsin. The extra income made available to citizens will lead to an even stronger economy in the next century.
I have long argued that taxes in Wisconsin are too high at all levels of government. This budget acts on my pledge to work to make our taxes competitive with other states. Under the bill I am signing with vetoes, personal income taxes will be permanently reduced from current levels by 5.8%. For the average home, the property tax bill received in December 1999 will be reduced by an average of 3.6%, or $76, compared to the December 1998 bill.
To deliver this property tax relief, I used my veto power to restructure the lottery credit mechanism the Legislature adopted. I vetoed out the use of general purpose revenue to pay for administrative expenses of the lottery in prior years. I did this because I have grave doubts about the constitutionality of using general tax revenue to buy back administrative expenses of the state lottery made as long ago as 1995. I also vetoed out the use of general purpose revenue to pay for ongoing administrative costs of the lottery in fiscal year 2000-2001. I do not believe we should be paying administrative expenses of the lottery with general tax dollars on a permanent basis.
Instead, I have crafted language that redirects the bulk of the money that the Legislature used to fund the lottery credit into other forms of property tax relief. I have used the partial veto to add to current law an additional property tax/rent credit payment of 6.4% of the first $2,000 of property taxes in tax year 1999, an additional property tax/rent credit payment of 10% of the first $2,000 of property taxes in tax year 2000, and an increase in the school levy credit of $60 million to be reflected on the December 2000 property tax bill. Under the budget as vetoed, homeowners will see a $76 reduction in their December 1999 property tax bills for the typical home. Citizens will also see an increase of up to $128 in the property tax/rent credit on their tax year 1999 income taxes, an increase of up to $200 in the property tax/rent credit on their tax year 2000 income taxes, and an average increase of $22 in the school levy credit applied to the December 2000 property tax bill.
My proposal is constitutional, provides significant property tax relief and is a more equitable way to provide the relief than the expanded lottery credit plan passed by the Legislature. However, I believe the best way to return the budget surplus to citizens is to provide a property tax relief rebate check as soon as possible. To this end, I am signing the budget bill with the property tax reduction crafted through my vetoes as described above, but today I am also calling the Legislature back into special session to pass a bill giving citizens a rebate check averaging $286. If the Legislature can pass this bill by November 11, the deadline for printing the 1999 income tax forms affected by the budget, the property tax plan I crafted through the veto will be replaced by the rebate check. If the Legislature cannot act by this deadline, the plan I crafted through my budget veto will stand. We will have property tax relief either way, but my preference is to do it immediately via a rebate check.
Wisconsin has many other needs that we have also addressed in the budget. We continue to fund two-thirds of K-12 school costs and will now fund significant reductions in class sizes in grades K-3 in many Wisconsin school districts. We recognize the importance of a world class university system by investing in quality improvements in the University of Wisconsin, while increasing financial assistance for students who need it. We fund the BadgerCare program to provide health insurance for 67,500 low-income working families and begin our efforts to streamline how long-term care is provided in Wisconsin. We address the need to reuse Brownfields sites, continue recycling programs and reauthorize the Stewardship Program at a much higher level of funding. We have funded additional prison capacity while also increasing funds for social services that can prevent crime from happening in the first place.
I am proud we are addressing these and other needs. However, two problems in the budget concern me greatly. First, spending in fiscal year 2000-2001, the last year of the biennium, exceeds estimated revenue in that year by $435 million. This structural imbalance is simply too high. The budget I proposed contained a smaller imbalance, and my original budget did not take into account the additional $567 million in revenue the state now expects to receive between fiscal year 1998-1999 and fiscal year 2000-2001. This $435 million structural imbalance is the highest in our history.
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This structural imbalance is a concern because it means that, under the budget bill as passed by the Legislature, the first $435 million of revenue growth we receive in fiscal year 2001-2002 would have to be devoted simply to continuing the base level of spending from fiscal year 2000-2001. Furthermore, there are additional pressures affecting the next budget because:
• This budget contains over $75 million in advance commitments that will need to be funded in fiscal year 2001-2002 (the first year of the 2001-2003 budget), and will be a further draw upon available revenue.
• The Legislature pushed back my timetable to increase the required 1% budget balance to 1.1% in fiscal year 2000-2001, leaving a smaller reserve in fiscal year 2000-2001.
