Under current law, the board may not create or abolish any position funded
with general purpose revenues (GPR) without legislative approval. This bill permits
the board to create or abolish faculty and academic staff GPR-funded positions
without legislative approval if it submits a request to DOA containing a clear
explanation of how the board will fill the requested position and if DOA approves the
request.
Under current law, the board may create or abolish certain positions funded
with program revenue without legislative approval if it reports the number of
positions created or abolished and the funding source to DOA and JCF. This bill
allows the board to create positions funded from program revenue generated from
courses for which nonresident and resident students pay the same tuition and for
which the tuition charged equals 100% of the cost of offering the course. The bill also
imposes the same reporting requirement for these new positions.
Under current law, the board may, until the 2000-01 academic year, exempt
from the payment of nonresident tuition a certain number of students enrolled at
UW-Parkside and UW-Superior. This bill allows the UW board to continue to
exempt these pupils after the 2000-01 academic year.
Current law requires the board to make all reasonable efforts to provide night
courses. This bill instead requires the board to ensure that at least 15% of all UW
System course sections that are offered for credit and that do not exclude
undergraduate students are offered during the evenings and weekends or by
electronic means.
Under current law, the board must remit resident, undergraduate tuition for
children or spouses of certain persons, such as police officers, who are killed in the
line of duty. This bill directs the board to remit the resident, undergraduate tuition
of the winner of the Wisconsin state science fair for up to five consecutive years. A
winner who receives the fee remission, remains in good academic standing, and
completes a bachelor's degree receives a two-year fee remission for a science-related
graduate program.
Currently, the technical college system (TCS) board must approve the
qualifications of educational personnel and the courses of study for each program
offered in the district schools. This bill allows a district board to employ an instructor
who is not certified by the TCS board if the instructor holds a valid industry
certification recognized by the TCS board.
Current law prohibits the TCS board from considering any course of study for
approval if the course has not first been approved by the district board. This bill
eliminates this prohibition. The bill also requires the district board to offer any
program or course of study that the TCS board directs the district board to offer, and
to eliminate any program or course of study that the TCS board directs the board to
eliminate.
Currently, a district board must hold a referendum if it intends to make a
capital expenditure that exceeds $500,000. Under certain conditions, that
requirement does not apply to a capital expenditure to purchase or construct an
applied technology center. One of the conditions is that the expenditure be made
before January 1, 2002. This bill extends that date to July 1, 2003.
The TCS board currently awards incentive grants to district boards for a variety
of purposes. This bill authorizes the TCS board to award a grant to a district board
to assist in the statewide marketing and promotion of the TCS. The bill also prohibits
the TCS board from awarding any incentive grant to a district board without first
reviewing and approving the district board's budget.
This bill directs the governor to appoint a committee to study the feasibility of
consolidating the UW System two-year colleges and the TCS and to report its
findings to DOA by January 1, 2002.
This bill directs the TCS board to establish a system that allows a student
enrolled in one technical college to enroll in a course offered over the Internet by
another technical college without paying additional fees to the technical college
offering the course. The bill also directs the TCS board to assist technical colleges
to develop Internet courses and to establish an Internet site that provides
information on all such courses.
Under current law, the College Tuition and Expenses Program (popularly
known as "EdVest") allows a person to purchase "tuition units" that can later be used
to pay college tuition, room, board, and related expenses on behalf of the purchaser,
the purchaser's child or legal guardian, or, if the purchaser is a trust, the beneficiary
of the trust. The College Savings Program, designed to complement EdVest, allows
a person, including a charitable organization, to make contributions to a college
savings account to pay the college expenses of a named beneficiary or an unnamed,
future recipient of a scholarship account established by the charitable organization.
EdVest is administered by the state treasurer, while the College Savings
Program is administered by the college savings board (board), which must contract
with a private vendor for the investment of the contributions to the college savings
accounts. Both a college tuition and expenses or college savings account must be
closed if the funds in the account are not used within ten years of the original
projected date of the beneficiary's or recipient's enrollment.
This bill allows a person to purchase tuition units on behalf of any named
beneficiary, allows a charitable organization to open an EdVest scholarship account
for an unnamed, future recipient, and permits, but does not require, the state
treasurer or the board to close a college tuition and expenses or college savings
account if the account's funds are not used within ten years of the original projected
date of the beneficiary's or recipient's enrollment. The bill also permits revenues
generated from EdVest or College Savings Program enrollment fees and fees paid by
the College Savings Program vendor to be used to defray the administrative costs of
either program.
Other educational and cultural agencies
Under current law, the educational communications board (ECB) is responsible
for overseeing the provision of public broadcasting in this state. 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 creates a public broadcasting transitional board (transitional board)
that is responsible for creating a nonstock, nonprofit educational broadcasting
corporation (corporation). The bill directs the transitional board to draft and file
articles of incorporation for a corporation and to take all actions necessary to exempt
the corporation from taxation under the Internal Revenue Code. In addition, the
transitional board must provide in the articles of incorporation that the members of
the transitional board are the initial directors of the corporate board. The
transitional board must prepare an application for the corporate board to submit to
the federal communications commission (FCC) to transfer all broadcasting licenses
held by the ECB and the board of regents to the corporation, except licenses held by
the board of regents for student radio; negotiate an agreement with the Wisconsin
Public Radio Association to transfer funds raised by the Wisconsin Public Radio
Association to the corporation; and negotiate an agreement with each friends group
to transfer funds raised by the friends group to the corporation.
If the FCC approves the transfer of all broadcasting licenses held by the ECB
to the corporation, the ECB is eliminated on the effective date of the transfer. If the
FCC approves the transfer of all broadcasting licenses held by the board of regents
to the corporation, the corporation assumes the broadcasting activities of the board
of regents.
The corporation is entitled to receive state aid for its operational expenses if the
corporation, generally, maintains a state system of radio broadcasting for presenting
educational, informational, and public service programs; maintains television
channels for educational use; and enters into a contract with the board of regents for
the services of the employees of the board of regents related to providing public
broadcasting services.
If the FCC approves the transfer of all broadcasting licenses held by the ECB
to the corporation, ECB employees become DOA employees and those employees will
provide broadcasting services to the corporation under a contract between DOA and
the corporation.
Under current law, school districts, public library boards, and certain other
educational agencies are eligible to receive grants and loans for educational
technology from the technology for educational achievement in Wisconsin (TEACH)
board. This bill makes certain secured correctional facilities for juvenile delinquency
and the UW-Milwaukee, Milwaukee Area Technical College, and the city of
Milwaukee eligible to receive these grants and loans on behalf of charter schools that
they sponsor.
This bill directs the TEACH board to award grants to school districts in the
2001-03 fiscal biennium to train pupils to provide educational technology support
services.
Under current law, the TEACH board makes subsidized loans to school districts
and public library boards that may be used only for upgrading and installing
computer network wiring. In addition, certain educational agencies, such as school
districts and public library systems, may participate in the Educational
Telecommunications Access Program, which provides these agencies with access to
data and video links.
This bill allows public library boards to use the loans to purchase hardware
necessary for direct connection to the internet and to enter into shared services
agreements concerning telecommunications access with local units of government.
The bill also permits individual public library branches to participate in the
Educational Telecommunications Access Program.
Under current law, the state has participated in the formation and operation
of the Wisconsin Advanced Telecommunications Foundation (foundation), which is
organized as a nonstock corporation. As required under current law, the foundation
has established an endowment fund, which consists of a onetime $500,000
contribution by the state and contributions by telecommunications providers. As
also required under current law, the foundation has established a fast start fund,
which consists of contributions by telecommunications providers. The foundation
uses both funds to provide funding for advanced telecommunications technology
applications projects and efforts to educate telecommunications users about
advanced telecommunications services. Current law also provides that if the
foundation substantially ceases operations, the state's unencumbered contribution
to the endowment fund must be returned to the state. Effective February 6, 2001,
the foundation dissolved itself and transferred its funds to DOA as a gift.
This bill eliminates all provisions under current law regarding the foundation.
In addition, the bill provides that $2,000,000 of the moneys that are received by DOA
are transferred to the TCS board for establishing an Internet site that lists all the
Internet courses provided by the technical colleges and to assist technical colleges to
develop Internet courses.
The bill also provides that the following moneys that are received by DOA are
transferred to the TEACH board for the following purposes: 1) $136,200 for
administrative and support services to resolve the outstanding business of the
foundation and performing other duties specified by the secretary of the TEACH
board; and 2) $566,200 for closing out any existing grants awarded by the foundation.
In addition, the bill provides that the following moneys that are received by
DOA are transferred to the board of regents of the UW System for the following
purposes: 1) $250,000 for the UW Learning Innovations at UW-Extension to
establish a nonprofit, tax-exempt corporation whose purpose is to establish distance
education classrooms in Wisconsin trade offices abroad and offer UW System
distance education courses from those classrooms; 2) $3,000,000 for funding the
activities of the UW Learning Innovations at UW-Extension; 3) $500,000 for
developing wireless networking systems that allow students to use laptop computers
and docking stations to connect to the Internet; 4) $2,000,000 for funding the UW
System's project designated "Internet 2," which upgrades technology infrastructure
on campuses for enhancing high-speed Internet activity; 5) $500,000 for purchasing
a digital mammography machine for the UW Medical School; and 6) $1,000,000 for
funding the Wisconsin advanced distributed co-laboratory, a computer laboratory
located on the UW-Madison campus. If the last transfer is made, the UW System
board of regents must submit a report to DOA by September 1, 2003, that shows how
the money was used and describes any federal funding for the co-laboratory.
Also under the bill, the following moneys that are received by DOA are
transferred to DPI for the following purposes: 1) $579,000 for upgrading the
Wisconsin Informational Network for School Success; 2) $77,800 for upgrading the
state school finance information system; 3) $526,000 for completing a network
upgrade and upgrading and replacing assistive technology devices and related
software programs for the Wisconsin Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired; 4)
$161,600 for replacing the automated system at the Wisconsin Regional Library for
the Blind and Physically Handicapped; and 5) $500,000 for awarding a grant to the
National Geographical Society Education Foundation for establishing a program for
awarding grants and supporting programs for improving geographical education in
the state, with an emphasis on student use of geographic information systems
technology. The transfer of $500,000 for awarding the grant to the National
Geographical Society Education Foundation is contingent on that foundation's
contribution of $500,000 in matching funds for the program that is established.
The bill also provides that $1,500,000 of the moneys received by DOA is
transferred to the department of commerce to award grants, no later than June 30,
2003, to the UW-Milwaukee, the UW-Parkside, Marquette University, the
Milwaukee School of Engineering, and the Medical College of Wisconsin. The grants
must be used for research related to emerging technologies that promote industrial
and economic development in southeastern Wisconsin. The department of commerce
and a grant recipient must enter into an agreement that specifies reporting and
auditing requirements for the grant.
In addition, the bill provides that $168,300 of the moneys received by DOA is
transferred to HEAB for upgrading technology at the board.
Employment
Under the Municipal Employment Relations Act (MERA), the selection of any
group health care benefits provider for municipal employees, including school
district employees, is treated as a mandatory subject of collective bargaining if the
selection of the provider primarily relates to the wages, hours, and working
conditions of the employees. This bill provides that the selection of any group health
care benefits provider for school district professional employees is treated as a
permissive subject of collective bargaining under MERA (which means that the
employer is not required to bargain with respect to the subject) if the provider offers
health care benefits coverage that is substantially similar to that offered by other
providers in bids submitted to school districts. Under the bill, OCI must promulgate
rules that set out a standardized summary of health care benefits for use in
determining whether coverage offered by different providers that submit bids to
school districts is substantially similar.
Under MERA, in local government employment other than law enforcement
and fire fighting employment, if a dispute relating to a proposed collective
bargaining agreement has not been settled after a reasonable period of negotiation
and after mediation by the Wisconsin employment relations commission (WERC),
either party, or the parties jointly, may petition WERC to initiate compulsory, final,
and binding arbitration with respect to any dispute relating to wages, hours, and
conditions of employment. If WERC determines that an impasse exists and that
arbitration is required, WERC must submit to the parties a list of seven arbitrators,
from which the parties alternately strike names until one arbitrator is left. As an
alternative to a single arbitrator, WERC may provide for an arbitration panel that
consists of one person selected by each party and one person selected by WERC. As
a further alternative, WERC may also provide a process that allows for a random
selection of a single arbitrator from a list of seven names submitted by WERC. Under
current law, an arbitrator or arbitration panel must adopt the final offer of one of the
parties on all disputed issues, which is then incorporated into the collective
bargaining agreement.
This process, however, does not apply to a dispute over economic issues
involving a collective bargaining unit consisting of school district professional
employes if WERC determines that the employer has submitted a qualified economic
offer (QEO). Under current law, a QEO consists of a proposal to maintain the
percentage contribution by the employer to the employees' existing fringe benefit
costs and to maintain all of the employees' existing fringe benefits and to provide for
an annual average salary increase having a cost to the employer at least equal to
2.1% of the existing total compensation and fringe benefit costs for the employees in
the collective bargaining unit plus any fringe benefit savings. This bill provides that
a QEO need only provide substantially similar health care benefits, not all of the
health care benefits.
Under current law, an arbitrator is appointed to resolve any collective
bargaining dispute between the city of Milwaukee and the members of the city's
police department when the parties have reached an impasse on matters relating to
wages, hours, and conditions of employment, as determined by WERC. This bill
authorizes an arbitrator to establish a system for conducting interrogations of
members of the police department that is limited to the hours between 7 a.m. and 5
p.m. on working days, if the interrogations could lead to disciplinary action,
demotion, or dismissal. Under the bill, "working days" are all days except Saturday,
Sunday, and certain legal holidays.
Under current law, the national and community service board, which is
attached to DOA for administrative purposes, administers at the state level the
federal National and Community Service Trust Act of 1993, under which the federal
government provides funding for national service programs that address unmet
human, educational, environmental, and public safety needs and for educational
grants to persons who successfully complete their term of service in a national
service program. This bill transfers that board to DWD.
Under current law, the Wisconsin conservation corps (WCC) employs young
adults to work on conservation and human services activities. The WCC program
is administered by the WCC board, which may delegate its administration
responsibilities to the executive secretary of the board. This bill eliminates the WCC
board and the position of executive secretary of the board and transfers
administration of the WCC program to DWD. The bill also creates a WCC council
to advise DWD in developing guidelines, standards, and procedures for the
administration of the WCC program, including guidelines for selecting WCC projects
and standards and procedures for the selection, hiring, promotion, discipline, and
termination of WCC enrollees.
The bill also requires DWD to work with a nonprofit corporation that provides
education, employment skills, and career direction leading to economic
self-sufficiency to young people in Dane County who are at risk of not achieving
economic self-sufficiency to develop a plan to track the educational attainment of
persons enrolled in the WCC program, consolidate the functions of the WCC
program, add educational and training components to the WCC program, provide a
method for determining the location and number of crews working on WCC projects,
and improve the retention of persons enrolled in the WCC program.
Under current law, a WCC enrollee who is employed for a continuous six-month
period and who receives a satisfactory evaluation is entitled to an education voucher
that the enrollee may use, for three years after its issuance, to pay tuition and fees
at an institution of higher education. A WCC enrollee who has been a crew leader
or a regional crew leader for at least two years is also entitled to group health care
coverage. This bill permits a WCC enrollee to use an education voucher for four years
after its issuance. The bill also lowers to six months the period for which a WCC
enrollee must have been a crew leader or a regional crew leader to be eligible for
group health care coverage.
Under current law, DWD may fix and collect a reasonable fee for issuing child
labor permits, street trade permits, and certificates of age for minors. DWD has fixed
that fee by rule at $5, 50% of which may be retained by a permit officer who is not
employed by DWD and 50% of which must be forwarded by such a permit officer to
DWD. This bill increases that fee to $7.50 and requires a permit officer who is not
employed by DWD to forward $5 of that fee, and a permit officer who is employed by
DWD to forward the entire fee, to DWD. Of each fee collected, $2.50 is used to pay
for the expenses of providing an automated child labor permit system and for other
operational expenses of the division of equal rights in DWD.
Under current law, the governor's work-based learning board (board) is
required to administer the Youth Apprenticeship Program, under which training
grants are awarded to employers that provide paid on-the-job training and
supervision for youth apprentices. This bill limits eligibility for a youth
apprenticeship training grant to small employers, as determined by the board, and
to employers providing on-the-job training in employment areas determined by the
board.
Under current law, DWD provides a job center network through which job
seekers may receive comprehensive career planning, job placement, and job training
information. As part of the job center network, DWD provides career counseling
centers at which youths may receive access to comprehensive career education and
job training information and assistance in locating apprenticeship and other work
experience opportunities that are related to the youth's education. This bill transfers
responsibility for providing career counseling centers from DWD to the board.
Under current law, there is a division of workforce excellence in DWD, and the
administrator of that division is a member of the board. This bill eliminates that
division and substitutes as a member of the board an administrator of a division in
DWD, designated by the governor.
Environment
Hazardous substances and environmental cleanup
Local governmental units and contaminated property
Current law authorizes a local governmental unit that owns property that is
contaminated with hazardous substances to initiate a process for negotiating about
how the contamination will be remedied and how much the various parties that are
responsible for the contamination will contribute toward the investigation and
remedial action costs. The negotiations are presided over by an umpire. If an
agreement is reached, it is binding on the parties. If an agreement is not reached,
the umpire makes a recommendation that may be accepted or rejected by the parties.
If the local governmental unit accepts the recommendation and another party rejects
the recommendation, the local governmental unit may sue that party to attempt to
recover a portion of the investigation and clean-up costs. If the local governmental
unit recovers an amount equal to or exceeding the amount that the party would have
paid under the umpire's recommendation, the local governmental unit may recover
interest and litigation costs.
This bill expands the applicability of the cost-recovery process so that it may
be used by a local governmental unit that does not own a contaminated property if
the local governmental unit is responsible for some of the contamination at the site
or facility and commits itself to paying more than 50% of the investigation and
remedial action costs, less any financial assistance received from this state. Under
the bill, DNR determines how the contamination will be remedied after considering
a proposal from the local governmental unit, and the negotiations relate only to the
amount that each responsible party will contribute toward the investigation and
clean-up costs. Under the bill, if a person who transported hazardous substances
to a contaminated property cooperates in providing information about the transport
and disposal of waste at the property, the amount of clean-up costs allocated to the
transporter are limited. If a transporter fails to cooperate, the amount of costs
allocated to the transporter may be increased.
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. Current law generally exempts a local
governmental unit from these clean-up requirements with respect to hazardous
substance discharges on property acquired in specified ways, such as through tax
delinquency proceedings and condemnation.
This bill provides that a local governmental unit is exempt from solid waste
management standards and other legal requirements relating to solid waste with
respect to a property that was acquired in a way that would qualify for the exemption
from clean-up requirements, except that the exemption from solid waste
requirements does not apply to a solid waste facility that was owned by the local
governmental unit while it was operated or to landfills.
Under current law, if a person does not pay the tax that is due on the person's
real property before September 1, the county treasurer must issue a tax certificate
to the county that relates to the property. The issuance of a tax certificate begins the
redemption period during which the person may retain the person's property by
paying the delinquent taxes. In most cases, the redemption period is two years. If
the property owner does not pay the delinquent taxes before the redemption period
expires, the county may acquire the property by taking a tax deed on the property,
by commencing an action to foreclose the tax certificate, or by commencing an action
to foreclose a tax lien on the property.
Under this bill, after the redemption period on tax delinquent property expires,
the county may transfer the property to a person by executing a tax deed to that
person, if the county provides written notice of the transfer to the municipality in
which the property is located at least 15 days before the governing body of the county
meets to consider approving executing the tax deed; the property is a brownfield; an
environmental assessment has been conducted on the property and DNR is given the
results of that assessment; and, if the property is contaminated by a hazardous
substance, the person to whom the tax deed is executed agrees to investigate, clean
up, maintain, and monitor the property according to rules that are promulgated by
DNR.
Under current law, a county may sell any tax delinquent property it acquires
by using a competitive bidding process by which the county accepts the best bid, but
rejects any bid that is less than the property's appraised value. Under this bill, a
county that acquires tax delinquent property may sell the property without using a
competitive bidding process, if the county provides written notice of the sale to the
municipality in which the property is located at least 15 days before the sale; the
property is contaminated by a hazardous substance; the property is a brownfield; an
environmental assessment has been conducted on the property and DNR is given the
results of that assessment; and the purchaser of the property agrees to investigate,
clean up, maintain, and monitor the property according to rules that are
promulgated by DNR.
Liability exemptions
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. 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 soil on property possessed or controlled by the person if
the discharge originated from a source off of the property and other specified
conditions are satisfied. This bill specifies that the liability exemption for soil
contamination that originates off of a property applies to hazardous substances in
sediments on the property.
Under current law, a person who applies to DNR for an exemption from liability
for hazardous substance discharges (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, 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 if later
changes to the law would 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.
This bill modifies the voluntary party liability exemption so that the
requirement to maintain and monitor the property as required by DNR only applies
to a voluntary party while the voluntary party owns or controls the property. The bill
specifies that the voluntary party liability exemption continues to apply to a
voluntary party who does not own or control the property if the person who owns or
controls the property fails to maintain and monitor the property as required by DNR.
Under current law, 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 an environmental investigation of the
property is conducted; the property is cleaned up, except with respect to the
discharge that originated off-site; 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; DNR determines in writing that the
voluntary party qualifies for the off-site exemption; and the voluntary party
maintains and monitors the property as required by DNR. This bill expands the
voluntary party exemption from liability related to groundwater contamination from
an off-site discharge so that it also applies to property on which the soil is
contaminated by an off-site discharge.
