This bill directs the board of regents of the UW System to allocate $1,000,000
from the UW System's general program operations appropriation in each year of the
biennium to advance the work of the UW center for tobacco research and
intervention.
This bill enumerates in the 1999-2001 state building program a full-scale
aquaculture demonstration facility to be built at Ashland and to be operated by the
board of regents of the UW System. Under the bill, $3,000,000 in program revenue
supported borrowing is authorized for the construction of the facility. The program
revenue that will support the borrowing consists of moneys received by the state from
the Indian gaming compacts.
Current law directs the technical college system (TCS) board to administer, or
contract for the administration of, the telecommunications retraining program.
Under the program, which is funded by contributions from telecommunications
companies, certain telecommunications industry workers are eligible to receive
grants for retraining. The program expires at the end of the 1998-99 fiscal year.
This bill extends the expiration date of the program to June 30, 2000, and
requires additional contributions from telecommunications companies if the
telecommunications retraining board determines that additional contributions are
necessary.
This bill directs the TCS board to produce an annual statewide guide containing
information on all of the technical colleges and their programs and to distribute it
to students, parents, high school personnel and others. For this purpose, the bill
authorizes the board to use up to $125,000 of the amount appropriated each fiscal
year as state aid for the technical colleges.
This bill directs the TCS board to award a grant in the 1999-2001 fiscal
biennium to the Waukesha County Technical College for the development of its
printing program.
Other educational and cultural agencies
Under current law, the educational communications board (ECB) is responsible
for overseeing and coordinating the provision of public broadcasting to Wisconsin.
In addition, the board of regents of the UW System, as licensee, must manage,
operate and maintain a radio and television station and provide the ECB part-time
use of equipment and space necessary for the operations of the state educational
radio and television networks.
This bill directs the secretary of administration, the president of the UW
System and one person chosen by the governor to draft and file articles of
incorporation for a nonstock, nonprofit educational broadcasting corporation and to
take all actions necessary to exempt the corporation from taxation under the
Internal Revenue Code. In addition, these persons must prepare and submit to the
joint committee on finance (JCF) for JCF's approval an operational plan for the
corporation that includes a list of those persons employed by the board of regents and
the ECB who are best-suited to provide educational broadcasting services for the
corporation and an estimate of the level of funding necessary to cover the
corporation's annual operating expenses.
The corporation is entitled to receive state aid for initial administrative
expenses if its articles of incorporation state that the purpose of the corporation is
to provide educational broadcasting to this state; the articles of incorporation name
as initial directors the secretary of administration, two representatives to the
assembly, two senators, a member of the board of regents and three individuals
selected by the governor; and the initial board of directors of the corporation submits
an application to the federal communications commission (FCC) to transfer all
broadcasting licenses held by ECB and the board of regents to the corporation.
If the FCC approves the transfer of all broadcasting licenses held by the ECB
and the board of regents to the corporation, the ECB is eliminated on the effective
date of the transfer of the broadcasting licenses. In addition, the corporation is
entitled to receive additional state aid for operational expenses if, among other
things, the board of directors of the corporation offers employment beginning on the
effective date of the transfer of all of the broadcasting licenses to those individuals
designated in the operational plan; the board of directors of the corporation
negotiates with the board of regents and the secretary of administration for the use
of state-owned equipment and space necessary for the operations of educational
radio and television networks; and the secretary of administration approves any
amendment to the corporation's articles of incorporation or bylaws.
This bill requires DOA to prepare a report on the privatization of state-owned
and state-leased communications towers that are used for public broadcasting,
except for the Milwaukee Area Technical College tower. The report must include a
plan for implementing privatization. No later than June 30, 2000, DOA must submit
the report to JCF for its approval.
Under current law, the public service commission (PSC) requires certain
telecommunications providers to make contributions to the universal service fund.
Moneys in the fund must be used for programs administered by the PSC for programs
to promote universal access to telecommunications services and affordable access to
high-quality education, library and health care information services, including a
program for providing institutions with support payments for certain
telecommunications services (institutional assistance program), and for certain
other PSC programs. In addition, the fund is used for certain programs administered
by the TEACH board, including an educational telecommunications access program
for providing data lines and video links to certain educational institutions.
This bill eliminates the requirement for the PSC to use moneys in the fund to
promote affordable access to high-quality education, library and health care
information services. The bill also transfers the institutional assistance program to
the TEACH board, which must provide support payments to eligible institutions as
determined by the PSC. In addition, all of the PSC's duties regarding the educational
telecommunications access program, except the PSC's duties regarding requiring
telecommunications providers to contribute to the fund, are transferred to the
TEACH board.
Under this bill, federated and consolidated public library systems and the
Wisconsin Schools for the Visually Handicapped and the Deaf may also participate
in the educational telecommunications access program. The bill allows any
educational agency that participates in the program to obtain access to more than
one data line if it can show to the satisfaction of the TEACH board that the additional
lines are more cost-effective than a single line. An educational agency that obtains
access to a data line under the program may enter into a shared service agreement
with a city, village, town or county (political subdivision) that provides the political
subdivision with access to any excess bandwidth on the data line that the educational
institution does not use. A political subdivision that obtains access to bandwidth
may not receive compensation for providing access to the bandwidth to any other
person and no moneys from the universal service fund may be used to pay
installation costs that are necessary to provide a political subdivision with access to
the bandwidth. The bill also prohibits an educational agency from requesting access
to an additional data line under the program for the purpose of providing a political
subdivision with access to excess bandwidth and from providing access to a data line
under the program to a private business entity.
Current law directs the TEACH board to award educational technology
training and technical assistance grants, on a competitive basis, to CESAs and to
consortia consisting of two or more school districts or CESAs, or of one or more school
districts or CESAs and one or more public library boards. This bill requires that at
least one of these grants be awarded annually to an applicant located in the territory
of each CESA. The bill also directs the TEACH board, beginning in the 2000-01
fiscal year, to award at least one grant in each fiscal year to an educational
organization or consortium of educational organizations for the development and
implementation of a foreign language instruction program in a public school in
grades kindergarten to six.
Under current law, the Wisconsin Advanced Telecommunications Foundation
provides funding for certain advanced telecommunications technology application
projects and for efforts to educate telecommunications users about advanced
telecommunications services. This bill allows the TEACH board to contract with the
foundation to provide administrative services to the foundation.
Under current law, the educational approval board (EAB), which is attached to
the higher educational aids board (HEAB), approves and supervises education and
training of veterans under certain programs under federal law. EAB also regulates
certain schools, including certain proprietary schools, and the solicitation of
students by such schools.
This bill eliminates EAB and transfers its functions regarding veterans'
education and training to the department of veterans affairs. The bill transfers all
of the other functions of EAB to HEAB. The bill creates an educational approval
council to advise HEAB in carrying out its duties.
Currently, under the Wisconsin higher education grant program, HEAB
awards grants to postsecondary resident students enrolled at least halftime in
accredited higher education institutions in this state. Students at tribal colleges are
not eligible for grants under the program. HEAB is required to promulgate rules
establishing policies and procedures for determining dependent and independent
student status and calculating expected parental and student contributions under
the program. Current law specifies a method for HEAB to award these grants to
dependent students. HEAB also administers the tuition grant program for students
enrolled at accredited, nonprofit, post-high school educational institutions and
tribal colleges. In addition, HEAB administers an Indian assistance grant program
to assist those Indian students who are residents of this state to receive a higher
education. Grants under the Indian assistance grant program are based on financial
need. One-half of each such grant is paid by the state with general purpose revenue;
the other half is contributed by Indian tribes or bands.
Under this bill, students at tribal colleges are eligible for grants under the
Wisconsin higher education grant program, but not for grants under the tuition
grant program. The bill appropriates money derived from the Indian gaming
receipts to pay for the grants awarded to tribal college students under the Wisconsin
higher education grant program and to pay the state's share of each grant under the
Indian assistance grant program. In addition, the bill eliminates the requirement
for HEAB to promulgate rules regarding student status and expected contributions
under the Wisconsin higher education grant program, as well as the method specified
for awarding grants to dependent students. The bill requires instead that HEAB
award grants under the Wisconsin higher education program based on a formula
that accounts for expected parental and student contributions.
Currently, HEAB administers the academic excellence higher education
scholarship program that awards scholarships, for up to four years of study, to
certain students enrolled at participating institutions of higher education in this
state who had the highest grade point averages in their high schools. This bill
specifies that this program and its scholarship recipients must be referred to as the
governor's scholarship program and governor's scholars, respectively, in all printed
material disseminated or otherwise distributed by HEAB.
The state currently appropriates money to the state historical society from the
conservation fund for interpretive programming at the Northern Great Lakes
Center. This bill designates the Northern Great Lakes Center as a historic site. The
bill appropriates money derived from the Indian gaming receipts for the operation
of the Northern Great Lakes Center historic site. The appropriation from the
conservation fund is not eliminated.
The state currently appropriates general purpose revenue to the arts board to
award grants to individuals and groups concerned with the arts and to contract with
individuals, organizations, units of government and institutions for services
furthering the development of the arts and the humanities. This bill appropriates
money derived from the Indian gaming receipts for such grants awarded to, and such
contracts entered into with, American Indian individuals, groups, organizations,
tribal governments and institutions.
This bill appropriates money to the Medical College of Wisconsin for the study
and prevention of tobacco-related illnesses.
eminent domain
Under current law, any municipality, board, commission, public officer or
corporation that is authorized to acquire property by condemnation and that
acquires property either by purchase or by condemnation, and any entity that carries
out a program or project with public financial assistance that causes any person to
move or to move his or her personal property, must provide relocation benefits to
persons displaced by the program or project. Relocation benefits include moving
expenses, replacement housing payments and business or farm replacement
payments.
This bill eliminates the authority of the department of natural resources (DNR)
to acquire property by condemnation. The bill also provides that if DNR carries out
a program or project that causes a person to move or to move his or her personal
property, DNR is not required to provide relocation benefits. Under the federal
Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policies Act, however,
a person is eligible for relocation benefits specified under the federal law if a state
agency (including DNR) carries out a program or project with federal financial
assistance.
Finally, the bill authorizes the building commission, at the request of DNR, to
acquire property by condemnation for any public purpose. Under current law, the
eminent domain authority of the building commission is limited to the acquisition
of land that it deems necessary for a site for Madison downtown state office facilities.
If the building commission acquires property at DNR's request, whether by
condemnation or purchase, it is required to provide relocation benefits.
Under current law, a property owner whose property has been partially
condemned for a sewer or transportation facility must pay property taxes in the year
of the condemnation for both the condemnee's remaining property and the portion
of the property that was awarded to the condemnor. Current law also provides that,
in a partial condemnation, the portion of the condemnee's current property tax
obligation that applies to the condemnee's remaining property must be subtracted
from the award of compensation for the taking. To recover both the condemnor's and
the condemnee's prorated share of property taxes, the condemnee must file a claim
with the condemnor.
This bill provides that, if the property owner retains a majority interest in the
property after the condemnation, the condemnor may choose not to subtract the
condemnee's prorated taxes from the award payment and may include the
condemnor's prorated taxes in the award payment, thereby eliminating the need for
the condemnee to file a claim with the condemnor.
Employment
Current law requires the division of connecting education and work in the
department of workforce development (DWD) to administer the youth
apprenticeship and school-to-work programs provided by DWD under the federal
School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994. Under the youth apprenticeship
program, DWD must approve occupations and develop curricula for youth
apprenticeship programs, and may award training grants to employers that provide
on-the-job training and supervision for youth apprentices. Under the
school-to-work program, DWD must approve statewide skill standards. Also under
current law, DWD may award grants to nonprofit corporations and public agencies
for the provision of career counseling centers that provide youths with career
education and job training information and that assist youths in locating
apprenticeship and other work experience opportunities that are related to the
youth's education.
This bill eliminates the division of connecting education and work in DWD,
creates a governor's work-based learning board attached to DWD and transfers to
that board the administration of the youth apprenticeship, school-to-work and
career counseling center programs. The bill transfers to the technical college system
board the responsibility for developing youth apprenticeship curricula, subject to the
approval of the governor's work-based learning board. Under the bill, the governor's
work-based learning board is also responsible for administering a study grant
program created under the bill for high school graduates who meet or exceed a grade
point average determined by the governor's work-based learning board and who
enroll in a technical college within one year after high school graduation, and a
work-based learning program created under the bill for youths who are eligible to
receive federal temporary assistance for needy families.
The bill also directs the governor's work-based learning board to award grants
to local partnerships for the implementation and coordination of local youth
apprenticeship programs. The bill defines a local partnership as one or more school
districts, or any combination of one or more school districts, other public agencies,
nonprofit organizations, individuals or other persons, who have agreed to be
responsible for implementing and coordinating a local youth apprenticeship
program. A local partnership that is awarded a grant may use the grant moneys to
recruit employers and students to participate in the program; coordinate academic,
vocational and occupational learning, school-based and work-based learning and
secondary and postsecondary education for participants in the program; assist
employers in identifying and training workplace mentors; and perform any other
implementation or coordination activity that the governor's work-based learning
board may direct or permit the local partnership to perform.
Under current law, the state superintendent of public instruction may award
a grant to a nonprofit organization in Milwaukee County that is providing an
innovative school-to-work program for children at risk (children who are behind
their age group in the number of high school credits attained or in basic skill levels
and who are dropouts, habitual truants, parents or adjudicated delinquents) to
assist those children in acquiring employability skills and occupation-specific
competencies before leaving high school. This bill transfers to the governor's
work-based learning board the responsibility for awarding that grant.
Under current law, the Wisconsin employment relations commission (WERC)
must collect fees from parties who request WERC services relating to labor disputes
involving fact-finding, mediation or arbitration. This bill requires that WERC
collect a fee from any party who requests that WERC assemble a panel of individuals
who are not members or employes of WERC to act as an arbitrator to resolve a dispute
involving the interpretation or application of a collective bargaining agreement.
Environment
Hazardous substances and environmental cleanup
Requirement to clean up hazardous substance spills
Current law generally requires a person who possesses or controls a hazardous
substance that is discharged or who causes the discharge of a hazardous substance
to restore the environment to the extent practicable and to minimize the harmful
effects of the discharge on the environment. Courts have held that a person
possesses or controls any hazardous substance that is present on property that the
person owns. Current law generally exempts a local governmental unit (a city,
village, town, county, redevelopment authority and housing authority) from these
clean-up requirements with respect to hazardous substance discharges on land
acquired in specified ways, such as through tax delinquency proceedings or
condemnation.
This bill requires local governmental units to agree to provide access to land
that is subject to the exemption for the purpose of letting someone else conduct a
cleanup of the discharge. The bill also expands the local governmental exemption
from the clean-up requirements in a number of ways:
1. The bill makes community development authorities eligible for the
exemption.
2. Under current law, the local governmental unit exemption from clean-up
requirements is not available if the discharge is from an underground petroleum
storage tank. This bill eliminates that limitation.
3. The bill applies the exemption to land acquired with funds from this state's
stewardship program, land acquired through escheat and land acquired from
another local governmental unit that is entitled to the exemption. Land is acquired
through escheat when the owner dies without a will that disposes of the land and
without any heir.
4. The bill exempts a local governmental unit from the requirement to clean up
a hazardous substance that has migrated from a property acquired in one of the
specified ways to another property.
The bill also exempts a local governmental unit that has acquired property in
one of the specified ways from certain requirements relating to hazardous waste if
the hazardous waste is cleaned up, DNR approves the cleanup and other conditions
are satisfied.
Under current law, a lender who acquires land through enforcement of a
security interest is not liable for a discharge of a hazardous substance on that land
if certain requirements are satisfied. This bill requires a lender to provide access to
the land on which the discharge occurred for the purpose of letting someone else
conduct a cleanup of the hazardous substance. Under current law, the
lender-liability exemption is not available if the discharge is from an underground
petroleum storage tank. This bill makes the lender-liability exemption available if
the discharge is from an underground petroleum storage tank.
Exemption from clean-up requirement for voluntary parties
Under current law, any person, except for a person who intentionally or
recklessly caused the original discharge of a hazardous substance on a property, is
called a voluntary party. A voluntary party is exempt from absolute requirements
to restore the environment and minimize the harmful effects of the discharge, and
from the requirements of other laws relating to hazardous substances, if an
environmental investigation of the property is conducted and approved by the
department of natural resources (DNR), the property is cleaned up, DNR certifies
that the cleanup restored the environment and minimized the harmful effects of the
discharge and the voluntary party maintains and monitors the property as required
by DNR. This exemption applies even if later changes to the law impose greater
responsibilities on the voluntary party or if it is discovered that the cleanup failed
to fully restore the environment or to minimize the harmful effects of the discharge.
Under this bill, any person, including a person who intentionally or recklessly
caused the discharge of a hazardous substance, is eligible for the voluntary party
exemption under the conditions described above. The bill authorizes DNR to require
a voluntary party to obtain insurance to cover the cost of a cleanup in case the initial
cleanup fails.
The bill also specifies that the voluntary party exemption applies only with
respect to hazardous substances released on the property before DNR approves the
environmental investigation of the property. In order to qualify for the voluntary
party exemption, the bill requires that both the voluntary party's property and any
other property affected by a discharge originating from that property be cleaned up.
Once DNR approves the cleanup, the voluntary party is exempt from further
clean-up requirements on both the voluntary party's own property and any other
property affected by a discharge originating from that property.
Under current law, a person is exempt from the requirements to restore the
environment and minimize the effects of the discharge of a hazardous substance on
the environment with respect to the existence of a hazardous substance in
groundwater on property possessed or controlled by the person if the discharge
originated from a source off of the property, the person agrees to allow access to the
property so that someone else can conduct a cleanup and the person agrees to any
other condition necessary to ensure that an adequate cleanup can be conducted.
Under this bill, for a property affected by an off-site discharge that has
contaminated the groundwater and by discharges of other hazardous substances, a
voluntary party is exempt from absolute requirements to restore the environment
and minimize the harmful effects of the discharges, and from the requirements of
other laws relating to hazardous substances, if: 1) an environmental investigation
of the property is conducted and approved by DNR; 2) the property is cleaned up,
except with respect to the discharge that originated off-site; 3) DNR certifies that the
cleanup restored the environment and minimized the harmful effects of the
discharge, except with respect to the discharge that originated off-site; 4) DNR
determines in writing that the voluntary party qualifies for the off-site exemption;
and 5) the voluntary party maintains and monitors the property as required by DNR.
Currently, a person may be allowed to use natural attenuation to clean up a
hazardous substance in groundwater if DNR determines that natural attenuation
will bring the groundwater into compliance with groundwater standards within a
reasonable period. "Natural attenuation" means the reduction in the amount and
concentration of a substance in groundwater that occurs because of natural
processes.
Under this bill, if groundwater on a property is contaminated by a hazardous
substance in a concentration that exceeds a groundwater standard and DNR
determines that natural attenuation will restore groundwater quality, a voluntary
party is exempt from absolute requirements to restore the environment and
minimize the harmful effects of the discharges, and from the requirements of other
laws relating to hazardous substances, if: 1) an environmental investigation of the
property is conducted and approved by DNR; 2) the property is cleaned up, except
with respect to the substance for which DNR approves natural attenuation; 3) DNR
certifies that the cleanup restored the environment and minimized the harmful
effects of the discharge, except with respect to the substance for which DNR approves
natural attenuation; 4) the voluntary party maintains and monitors the property as
required by DNR; and 5) if required by DNR, the voluntary party obtains insurance
to cover the cost of a cleanup in case natural attenuation fails.
Under this bill, a voluntary party is exempt from the requirements to clean up
any hazardous substance discharge on a property that is discovered after two
environmental investigations have been conducted and approved by DNR with
respect to the property if the voluntary party has obtained insurance to cover the
clean-up costs.
Petroleum storage remedial action
Under current law, the department of commerce administers a program to
reimburse owners of certain petroleum product storage tanks for a portion of the
costs of cleaning up discharges from those tanks. This program is commonly known
as PECFA.
This bill authorizes the department of commerce to issue revenue obligations,
to be paid from revenues deposited in the petroleum inspection fund, to fund the
payment of claims under the PECFA program. Revenue obligations issued under
this bill may not exceed $450,000,000 in principal amount. See STATE
GOVERNMENT, State finance.
