Majority Caucus Vice-Chair: Glenn Grothman
Majority Caucus Secretary: Carol Owens
Majority Caucus Sergeant-at-Arms: Jerry Petrowski
Sincerely,
Daniel P. Vrakas
Republican Caucus Chair
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November 18, 2002
Mr. Patrick Fuller
Assistant Assembly Chief Clerk
Room 208, 17 West Main St.
Madison, Wisconsin 53702
Dear Mr. Fuller:
Pursuant to Assembly Rule
2 (2), the following officers have been duly elected by the Assembly Democratic Caucus:
Minority Leader: James Kreuser
Assistant Minority Leader: Jon Richards
Minority Caucus Chairperson: Robert Turner
Minority Caucus Vice-Chair: Gary Sherman
Minority Caucus Secretary: Amy Sue Vruwink
Minority Caucus Sergeant-at-Arms: Jennifer Shilling
Sincerely,
Robert L. Turner
Democratic Caucus Chair
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December 4, 2002
Office of the Assembly Chief Clerk
17 West Main Street
Room 208
Madison, WI 53703
Dear Mr. Fuller:
I am writing to inform you that due to my marriage on November 22, I have changed my last name from Starzyk to Kerkman. Please make sure future records reflect this change.
If you have any questions, please call my office at 266-2530.
Thank you for your assistance.
Sincerely,
Samantha J. Kerkman
State Representative
66th Assembly District
__________________
December 9, 2002
Chief Clerk Patrick Fuller
Wisconsin State Assembly
17 West Main Street, Room 208
Madison, WI 53703
Dear Mr. Fuller:
I am writing to inform you that I have changed my surname. I no longer go by Morris-Tatum. My name is now Johnnie E. Morris. I ask that you please make necessary changes within the Assembly.
Please contact me if there are any questions. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Johnnie E. Morris
State Representative
11th Assembly District
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State of Wisconsin
Joint Legislative Council
Madison
December 20, 2002
To the Honorable, the Legislature:
Last summer, the Joint Legislative Council created the Special Committee on Improving Wisconsin's Fiscal Management and directed it to examine ways for Wisconsin to improve its ability to manage its finances using modern financial management and policy practices in the context of the budget process. Two of the major problems with Wisconsin's current budget process addressed by the Special Committee are that our state budget has been consistently enacted considerably after the beginning of the first fiscal year to which it applies and that the state budget contains too much policy.
These problems have many consequences. Tardy state budgets complicate the implementation of state programs, impede or preclude budgeting by local units of government, and undermine public confidence in the Legislature. Excessive policy in the budget threatens to weaken the legislative branch by undermining the standing committee process, reduces public scrutiny and analysis of policy items added to the budget late in the budget process, and obfuscates legislators' voting records given the "all-exclusive" nature of budget bills.
At its December 18, 2002 meeting, the Special Committee voted to recommend this letter and the attachments to it to address these two problems. The recommendations are implemented primarily through modification of the 2003-04 biennial session schedule and the creation of two joint rules, an Assembly rule and a Senate rule.
Recommended Schedule for the Development of the Biennial Budget
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The Special Committee recommends the attached schedules for the development of the future biennial budgets. These schedules are based on the recommendations of Robert Lang, Director, Legislative Fiscal Bureau, who prepared a model schedule for the 2003-05 Biennial Budget in response to a request from a committee member.
The recommended schedules for biennial budgets after the 2003-05 fiscal biennium vary depending on whether an incumbent governor or, a newly elected governor proposes the executive budget bill. The schedule for a newly elected, nonincumbent governor allows up to an additional two weeks to prepare and deliver the executive budget.
Given the current extraordinary fiscal condition of the state and the fact that Governor-Elect Doyle is not an incumbent Governor, the Special Committee recommends that the Legislature provide an additional two weeks for Governor-Elect Doyle to prepare his executive budget and set the date under s.
16.45, Stats., for the delivery of his budget message to be Tuesday, February 11, 2003. This delay would push back by up to two weeks each of the activities in the development of the next biennial budget that occur after the Governor's budget message, as reflected in the last column in the enclosed table. If the Legislature and the Governor adhere to the recommended schedule for the development of the 2003-05 Biennial Budget, then the Legislature should complete its work on this budget by July 3, 2003 and the Governor should approve the bill with any partial vetoes by July 28, 2003.
To ensure a timely review by the governor of an enrolled budget bill, the Special Committee also recommends that JCLO modify the session schedule so that the governor generally has 21 days to review an enrolled budget bill, irrespective of when the Legislature passes the bill. This 21-day period is incorporated into the three recommended schedules in the enclosed table and is composed of a 15-day informal review period and the six-day formal review period authorized under the State Constitution.
For the 2003-04 Biennial Session schedule, the Special Committee recommends that JCLO incorporate into the session schedule language such as that presented below relating to the presentation of an enrolled executive budget bill to the governor. For subsequent biennial sessions, the Special Committee recommends that, to be consistent with the recommended schedules, JCLO substitute for the fixed date in this language (July 22, 2003) either June 24 of the odd-numbered year or, if the governor is a newly elected, nonincumbent governor, July 8 of the odd-numbered year.
Proposed 2003-04 Biennial Session Schedule Language on Presentation of an Enrolled Executive Budget Bill to the Governor
Budget bill to governor. After an executive budget bill introduced under section
16.47 (1) of the statutes has been passed by both houses in regular, extraordinary, or special session, the chief clerk of the house in which it originated shall present the enrolled bill to the governor for approval on the later of:
1. July 22, 2003, or
2. Fifteen days after the enrolled bill is signed by the appropriate officer or officers certifying to its passage.
In addition, implementation of the schedules for the post 2003-05 biennial budgets will require amendments to current law. The Special Committee has recommended a draft proposal, WLC: 0045/4, which contains the amendments noted in the third and fourth columns in the enclosed table. These amendments relate to the dates for the transmittal of the Building Commission's recommended capital budget to the Joint Committee on Finance and the delivery of the Governor's budget message and a report on the timeliness of the submittal of agency budget requests. The Special Committee will be forwarding this draft to the Joint Legislative Council with a recommendation that the Joint Legislative Council introduce the bill into the 2003-04 Legislature.
Recommendations on Policy in the Budget
The attached Joint Resolution, WLC: 0079/2, Assembly Resolution, WLC: 0101/1, and Senate Resolution, WLC: 0102/1, relate to policy in the budget. Joint Rule
51m, created by WLC: 0079/2, directs the Legislative Reference Bureau (LRB) to identify specified types of policy items in drafting requests from the Department of Administration (DOA) for the executive budget bill and to notify DOA of this identification. The affected types of policy items are those that propose either of the following:
· A primarily nonfiscal policy that either has no or minimal state fiscal effect or, if it has a state fiscal effect, has policy implications that outweigh any potential fiscal effect.
· A private or local measure subject to the constitutional requirement that the measure be considered in a single subject bill.
Once an executive budget bill is introduced, the LRB must then report to the co-chairs of the Joint Committee on Finance (JFC) a list of the items in the introduced bill that contain these types of policy.
Joint Rule
28, created by WLC: 0079/2, directs the co-chairs of the JFC to identify the same types of policy items in an introduced executive budget bill and to request the LRB to draft the items as a separate bill for introduction by the specified leaders. Once the co-chairs have identified these items, the JFC may not recommend the passage of the bill if the bill contains any of these items.
To deal with legislative consideration of an executive budget bill after the JFC review, the Special Committee also recommends the creation of Assembly Rule
55m and Senate Rule
52m, as set forth in WLC: 101/1 and WLC: 0102/1, respectively. These companion rules establish that neither of the houses may consider an amendment or substitute amendment introduced in that house to an executive budget bill that contains either a nonfiscal policy that has no or minimal state fiscal effect or a private or local measure subject to the constitutional requirement that the measure be considered in a single subject bill.
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The Special Committee also considered alternative ways to ensure broader participation by the Legislature in the development of the JFC's budget recommendations. Part of the committee's discussion focused on procedures to involve legislators who are not on JFC in reviewing important issues that are not separated from the executive budget bill.
To that end, the Special Committee endorsed the creation of working groups as part of the JFC review of an executive budget bill. These working groups would include both JFC and non-JFC members and be empowered to review and make recommendations to JFC on a range of broad issues.
The Special Committee asks you and the other members of JCLO to endorse the above recommendations and work to ensure their timely implementation in your respective house in the upcoming and subsequent sessions. Implementation of these recommendations will also require that the session schedule that JCLO prepares for each Legislature reflects the appropriate dates and related changes.
Thank you for your consideration of these important changes to the state's budget process.
Sincerely,
Representative Donald Friske
Co-Chair, Special Committee on Improving Wisconsin's Fiscal Management
Senator Robert Jauch
Co-Chair, Special Committee on Improving Wisconsin's Fiscal Management
__________________
State of Wisconsin
Office of the Secretary of State
Madison
January 2, 2003
To the Chief Clerk of the Assembly:
I,
Douglas La Follette, Secretary of State of the State of Wisconsin, do hereby certify that the following proposed amendment to the Constitution of the State of Wisconsin has been approved by the Regular Session of the 2001-2002 legislature and duly published as required by Section 1 of
Article XII of the Constitution:
Enrolled Joint Resolution 16 (Senate Joint Resolution 2)
Sincerely,
DOUGLAS La FOLLETTE
Secretary of State
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