Wednesday, September 5, 2001
Ninety-Fifth Regular Session
The Chief Clerk makes the following entries under the above date.
__________________
Read first time and referred:
Senate Bill 237
Relating to: requiring pharmacies to keep patient health care records confidential.
By
Senators
Erpenbach, Hansen, Moen, George, Huelsman, Plache and Risser; cosponsored by Representatives Powers, Walker, Musser, Sykora, Krug, Turner, Miller, Meyerhofer, Black, Gronemus, Stone, Ott, Young, Pocan, Boyle, Ainsworth, Plouff, Staskunas, Gunderson, Lassa, Sinicki, Cullen, J. Lehman, Carpenter and La Fave.
To committee on Privacy, Electronic Commerce and Financial Institutions.
Senate Bill 238
Relating to: collection of data concerning motor vehicle contacts, law enforcement training standards, and granting rule-making authority.
By
Senators
Moore, George, Plache, Decker and Risser; cosponsored by Representatives Young, Colon, Morris-Tatum, Turner, Coggs, Williams, Riley, Pocan, Black, Boyle, Schooff, Berceau, Carpenter, Miller, Richards, Ryba and Wasserman.
To committee on Judiciary, Consumer Affairs, and Campaign Finance Reform.
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The committee on Insurance, Tourism, and Transportation reports and recommends:
Assembly Bill 154
Relating to: requiring headlamps and other required lamps on a school bus to be lighted whenever the school bus is operated on a highway.
Concurrence.
Ayes, 5 - Senators
Breske, Grobschmidt, Baumgart, A. Lasee and Schultz.
Noes, 0 - None.
Assembly Bill 290
Relating to: prohibiting the installation of a previously deployed or an otherwise nonfunctional airbag and providing a penalty.
Concurrence.
Ayes, 5 - Senators
Breske, Grobschmidt, Baumgart, A. Lasee and Schultz.
Noes, 0 - None.
Senate Bill 227
Relating to: qualifications for endorsements authorizing the operation of a school bus.
Introduction and adoption of Senate amendment 1.
Ayes, 5 - Senators
Breske, Grobschmidt, Baumgart, A. Lasee and Schultz.
Noes, 0 - None.
Passage as amended.
Ayes, 5 - Senators
Breske, Grobschmidt, Baumgart, A. Lasee and Schultz.
Noes, 0 - None.
Senate Bill 229
Relating to: qualifications for an endorsement authorizing a person to operate a school bus.
Passage.
Ayes, 5 - Senators
Breske, Grobschmidt, Baumgart, A. Lasee and Schultz.
Noes, 0 - None.
Senate Bill 56
Relating to: following snowplows and providing a penalty.
Passage.
Ayes, 5 - Senators
Breske, Grobschmidt, Baumgart, A. Lasee and Schultz.
Noes, 0 - None.
Roger Breske
Chairperson
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State of Wisconsin
Office of the Governor
August 30, 2001
To the Honorable, the Senate:
The following bill(s), originating in the Senate, have been approved, signed and deposited in the office of the Secretary of State:
Sincerely,
Scott McCallum
Governor
Office of the Governor
August 30, 2001
The Honorable, The Senate:
To the Honorable Members of the Senate:
I have approved Senate Bill 55 as
2001 Wisconsin Act 16 and deposited it in the Office of the Secretary of State.
The bill I am signing represents many difficult decisions made by a Legislature that remained focused on concluding a budget in a timely and orderly fashion. I commend the Legislature for its civility and commitment in crafting the most important piece of legislation in this legislative session. Despite constraints in revenue growth and the unfunded costs of new programs adopted in the previous legislative session, significant progress was made in a number of key policy areas, particularly economic growth, educational quality, health care for seniors and lower taxes.
Wisconsin's taxes remain too high. The 1999-2001 state budget took a serious step toward reducing our state's income tax burden by lowering rates eleven percent and this budget continues the trend of lowering the tax burden on Wisconsin citizens. Despite the severe financial constraints faced in developing this budget, taxes are further reduced by eliminating the income tax on military pensions and implementing the federal phase-out of the estate tax. While the Legislature chose to reinstate the estate tax in fiscal year 2003-04, I intend to restore the federal phase-out schedule in my next budget.
Future tax reductions will require continued robust economic growth. This budget includes a number of measures that will propel Wisconsin's economic engine to new heights, including the creation of eight new technology development zones and one agricultural development zone; an airline hub tax exemption for Wisconsin-based airlines, Midwest Express and Air Wisconsin; $317 million in new biotechnology facilities through the University of Wisconsin's BioStar Initiative; and $38 million for expanded information technology and biological sciences courses and other economic stimulus initiatives at the University of Wisconsin. All of these measures were included in my budget and represent further investments in Wisconsin's economic renaissance.
This budget also continues the trend of stabilizing the property tax burden by increasing school aids and shared revenue. Property taxes as a percent of ability to pay have dropped fourteen percent since controls on school revenues began in December 1993. This reduction is the result of balancing reasonable school cost growth (that has exceeded the rate of inflation), with continued investments in educational quality.
Since 1994, the first year that the school district allowable revenue formula was in place, the state has invested over $2.6 billion in our local schools. This funding has served to reduce property taxes and increase educational quality. State taxpayers will spend almost $100 million in school year 2002-03 to reduce class sizes in early grades through the Student Achievement Guarantee in Education (SAGE) program. School technology has increased exponentially with the $290 million provided since 1998 for the Technology for Educational Achievement in Wisconsin (TEACH) program. Improved educational attainment for all Wisconsin children is also being supported through an eighteen percent increase in funding for school breakfasts and investments in the private and public school choice and charter school programs.
Many other significant needs are addressed in this budget. We take the lead in health care access for seniors by establishing a new prescription drug benefit for Wisconsin's greatest generation. We provide a significant increase to the Birth to Three and Family Support programs to assist disabled children and their families. We improve the environment and support economic development through expanding the brownfields redevelopment program and providing continued funding for recycling. We have funded additional prison capacity while also supporting community corrections efforts. We fully fund child care subsidies so that low-income individuals can work and seek more educational opportunities. We protect more of Wisconsin's pristine landscape through a $112 million expansion of the Warren Knowles-Gaylord Nelson Stewardship 2000 Program.
Wisconsin is on the right path, we're reducing taxes and investing in our future. Unfortunately, the budget I received from the Legislature included a number of initiatives that could divert us from this path. First and foremost, the Legislature ignored the significant investments it has made in educational quality and listened instead to calls for a return to unfocused school spending.
Exemptions to school district allowable revenues and modifications to the qualified economic offer for teacher compensation packages will further burden Wisconsin taxpayers with no clearly defined benefit to students. Wisconsin already spends generously on a per student basis, sixth highest in the country. Growth in school district costs has outpaced inflation since the allowable revenue formula was adopted in the 1993-95 budget. Compensation for Wisconsin teachers remains among the highest in the country and our class sizes among the smallest. And, most notably and most importantly, our students are the best and the brightest.
Can more be done? Yes. Should more be done? Absolutely. We must continue to focus on improving educational achievement for all students, from inner city Milwaukee to South Shore on Lake Superior. The bill I am signing includes relief to small school districts that must serve large geographic areas. It also supports the private school choice program, restores state funding for four-year-old kindergarten and expands charter schools. It prudently targets taxpayer dollars toward programs shown to be effective in improving student achievement.
Many school districts continue to offer wage and compensation increases to teachers that exceed the 3.8 percent that constitute a qualified economic offer. According to the American Federation of Teachers, Wisconsin ranks tenth nationally when comparing teacher salaries to annual private sector earnings. In addition, the recent Supreme Court decision upholding changes to the state retirement system will serve to provide school districts with an $84 million windfall, much of which will translate into enhanced compensation packages for teachers.
