DWDDepartment of Workforce Development
JCFJoint Committee on Finance
OCIOffice of the Commissioner of Insurance
PSCPublic Service Commission
UWUniversity of Wisconsin
WHEDAWisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority
WHEFAWisconsin Health and Educational Facilities Authority
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Agriculture
Under current law, the land to which a claim for the farmland preservation
credit relates must be subject either to a farmland preservation agreement or to an
exclusive agricultural use zoning ordinance certified by the Land and Water
Conservation Board (LWCB). A farmland preservation agreement commits the
owner to keep the land in agricultural use for the duration of the agreement,
although DATCP or LWCB may release land from an agreement under certain
circumstances. When land is rezoned from exclusive agricultural use, or, under
certain circumstances, released from a farmland preservation agreement, DATCP
must file a lien against the land for the amount of the farmland preservation credit
the owner received during the preceding ten years.
This bill eliminates the requirement that DATCP file a lien against land that
is released from a farmland preservation agreement or that is rezoned from exclusive
agricultural use. Under the bill, to have land released from a farmland preservation
agreement the owner generally must pay $100 per acre to the state, and to have land
rezoned from exclusive agricultural zoning the owner must pay $100 per acre to the
local governmental unit that grants the rezoning.
Currently, DATCP awards grants for land and water resource management
projects and construction of animal waste management systems. This bill increases
the general obligation bonding authority for this program by $7,000,000.
This bill authorizes DATCP to pay a portion a business's costs of improvements
to prevent pollution from agricultural chemicals.
This bill increases the criminal penalties for violating laws regulating
nurseries and laws related to plant pests. The bill also provides forfeitures (civil
penalties) for violating these laws, ranging from a minimum of $200 to a maximum,
for a repeat offense, of $10,000.
This bill requires DATCP to fund, from the recycling fund, research and
development of anaerobic digesters, which produce and collect methane from animal
waste, at farms participating in the Wisconsin Agricultural Stewardship Initiative.
commerce and economic development
Economic development
This bill eliminates the authority of the Department of Commerce (Commerce)
to award a grant or make a loan for technology development, customized labor
training, major economic development, and technology and pollution control and
abatement programs, as well as the programs for revolving loan fund capitalization,
rapid response loans, employee ownership assistance, urban area early planning,
and the Wisconsin Procurement Institute. The bill authorizes Commerce, at the
request of the Development Finance Board, to make a grant or loan to a governing
body or other eligible person for any of the following: capital financing; worker
training; entrepreneurial development; assistance to technology-based businesses
or businesses at a foreign trade show; promoting urban or regional economic
development; establishing revolving loan funds; providing working capital; and
promoting employee ownership.
The bill also requires Commerce to establish procedures and conditions for
grants and loans, including a matching requirement of at least 25 percent.
Currently, WHEDA maintains a surplus fund consisting of assets that are not
required to pay the cost of issuing bonds or notes, to make loans, or to honor
agreements with bondholders and noteholders. This bill requires WHEDA to pay
Commerce from the surplus fund $2,000,000 in fiscal year 2007-08 and $2,000,000
in fiscal year 2008-09 to fund housing cost grants and loans and grants to local
housing organizations.
This bill authorizes Commerce to award a grant or loan from the recycling fund
to a business to increase renewable fuel or energy production or technology. A grant
recipient must provide at least 50 percent of the cost of a project funded by a grant.
The bill also requires Commerce to make grants totaling up to $5,000,000 to a person
who plans to construct a cellulosic ethanol plant.
In addition, the bill allows moneys in the recycling fund to be used to administer
the renewable fuel and energy grant and loan program and for current economic
development programs funded by the Wisconsin development fund.
This bill authorizes Commerce to award a grant to a technology-based
nonprofit organization to assist manufacturers in adopting process improvements
that result in more goods of higher quality produced with less effort. Commerce may
not award more than $1,500,000 in such grants in a fiscal biennium.
Under current law, Commerce provides funding for the promotion of
science-based and technology-based businesses through a nonstock, nonprofit
high-technology business development corporation. Commerce also provides
funding to Forward Wisconsin, Inc., a private corporation, for its economic
development promotion activities.
This bill requires Commerce to organize and assist in maintaining the
Wisconsin Venture Center (WVC), a nonprofit corporation, to raise capital to promote
and support emerging industries in the state. WVC must be governed by a board of
directors that includes the secretary of commerce or his or her designee, the secretary
of financial institutions or his or her designee, and no more than 12 other members
appointed by the governor.
This bill appropriates moneys to Commerce for advertising, marketing, and
promotional activities for economic development of, and business recruitment to,
this state.
Commerce, housing, and buildings and safety
This bill increases the initial and renewal license fees for securities agents and
investment adviser representatives from $30 to $60.
Under current law, annually DOA must allocate $1,100,000 of federal funds for
expenses in administering a low-income energy assistance program. This bill
deletes the specific amount and directs the secretary of administration to determine
the amount to allocate for expenses.
Current law directs Commerce to contract with private organizations to
educate builders of one- and two-family dwellings concerning construction
standards, inspection requirements, and business practices. Commerce must also
educate consumers regarding the process of building these dwellings. This bill
eliminates the requirement that Commerce educate builders on building practices
and eliminates the requirement that Commerce educate consumers. Commerce may
contract to educate builders on construction standards and inspection requirements,
but is not required to do so.
correctional systems
Adult correctional system
Beginning July 1, 2007, current law requires DOC to maintain global
positioning system (GPS) tracking of sex offenders committed as sexually violent
persons (SVPs) and certain sex offenders who have committed specified sex offenses
against a child. Generally, DOC must monitor the sex offenders for the rest of their
lives. DOC may petition a court to terminate the GPS tracking requirement if the
individual is permanently physically incapacitated.
This bill delays the implementation of the requirements until January 1, 2008.
The bill requires DOC only to record the sex offender's location rather than monitor
the person, and applies the tracking requirement only while the sex offender is on
supervised release, conditional release, extended supervision, parole, or lifetime
supervision for the serious child sex offense. The bill eliminates the requirement to
track SVPs discharged from DHFS custody and individuals who are found not guilty
of a serious child sex offense by reason of mental disease or defect who are discharged
from commitment, placed on probation for committing a serious child sex offense,
and released from prison upon completing a sentence imposed for a serious child sex
offense. The bill also allows DOC to petition a court to terminate the tracking
requirement if DOC determines that the individual would not endanger the public
if not tracked.
Currently, the Parole Commission in DOC determines whether, and under
what conditions, inmates serving indeterminate sentences may be released from
imprisonment to parole. A person who is serving a bifurcated sentence is not eligible
for parole and generally must serve the entire confinement portion of his or her
bifurcated sentence before being released to extended supervision. However, a
person who is sentenced to a bifurcated sentence for a Class C to Class I felony may
petition the sentencing court to adjust his or her sentence and release the person
from prison to extended supervision if he or she has served 85 percent (for Class C
to E felonies) or 75 percent (for Class F to I felonies) of the confinement portion of the
sentence. A person who is released to extended supervision must serve his or her
entire sentence before extended supervision terminates.
This bill renames the Parole Commission the Earned Release Review
Commission. The bill authorizes the Earned Release Review Commission to release
to extended supervision a prisoner who was sentenced to a bifurcated sentence for
a Class F to I felony if the prisoner has served 75 percent of the confinement portion
of the sentence and to terminate the extended supervision of a prisoner who was
sentenced to a bifurcated sentence for a Class F to I felony if the prisoner has served
75 percent of the extended supervision portion of the sentence. A prisoner who is
serving a bifurcated sentence for a Class C to a E felony must petition the sentencing
court for sentence adjustment.
Current law requires DOC and DHFS to provide, at the Robert E. Ellsworth
Correctional Center, a substance abuse treatment program for inmates who are
eligible to earn early release to parole or extended supervision upon successful
completion of the program. This bill allows DOC and DHFS to provide the program
at any correctional facility the departments determine is appropriate.
Under current law, DOC may house a person released to extended supervision
for up to 90 days in a regional detention facility or, with the approval of the sheriff,
in a county jail. This bill allows DOC to house a person released to extended
supervision for up to 90 days in any DOC facility, county jail, Huber facility, or work
camp.
This bill requires DOC to provide funding for New Hope Project, Inc., a
transitional employment program for criminal offenders.
Juvenile correctional system
Under current law relating to community youth and family aids, generally
referred to as "youth aids," DOC must allocate various state and federal moneys to
counties to pay for state-provided juvenile correctional services and local
delinquency-related and juvenile justice services. DOC charges counties for the
costs of services provided by DOC according to per person daily cost assessments
specified by law. This bill increases those assessments.
The bill also appropriates for youth aids moneys from the county aid fund,
which consists of real estate transfer fees retained by the state, and requires DOC
to allocate the moneys to counties based on each county's proportion of the number
of juveniles statewide who are placed in a juvenile correctional facility during the
most recent three-year period for which that information is available.
Current law directs DOC to enter into contracts with organizations in
Milwaukee County, Racine County, Kenosha County, and Brown County to provide
services for the diversion of youths from gang activities into productive activities.
This bill transfers administration of this program to the Office of Justice Assistance
in DOA.
courts and procedure
Circuit courts
Under current law, the Director of State Courts reimburses counties for certain
costs incurred in administering the circuit courts. Each county is required to submit
information about court costs annually by July 1. This bill requires counties to report
their reimbursable court costs annually by May 15. The bill authorizes the director
to audit the reports and to establish a uniform chart of accounts that each county
would be required to use to record all of its financial transactions relating to court
operations.
In some civil proceedings, such as those involving children in need of protective
services, current law requires a circuit court to provide an interpreter for an indigent
party or witness who has limited English proficiency. This bill requires the court, in
all civil proceedings, to provide an interpreter for any party or witness who has
limited English proficiency.
This bill authorizes the Director of State Courts to establish and collect fees for
use of the circuit court automated information systems.
Public defender
Under current law, the State Public Defender (SPD) provides counsel to
represent people in various legal proceedings, including criminal proceedings that
may result in imprisonment, emergency detention or involuntary civil commitment
proceedings, proceedings for the protective placement of an adult, paternity
determinations, and juvenile delinquency proceedings. The SPD provides counsel
to adults who are indigent and to children regardless of the child's income or assets.
This bill requires the SPD to provide legal representation to any person,
regardless of whether the person is indigent, who seeks SPD representation and is
the subject of an involuntary commitment proceeding for mental health or
alcoholism treatment, a protective placement or services proceeding, or a proceeding
concerning involuntary administration of psychotropic medication. The bill provides
that the court may require such a person to reimburse the SPD for all or part of the
costs of legal representation if the person is an adult who is able to make
reimbursement.
The Supreme Court created Wisconsin Trust Account Foundation, Inc., to
allocate moneys from attorney trust accounts to programs that provide civil legal
services to persons who are indigent. This bill requires the Office of Justice
Assistance to provide money to the Foundation, to be awarded as grants for assisting
Wisconsin Works participants with medical claims, developing discharge plans for
mentally ill inmates, coordinating insurance benefits for medical assistance
recipients, providing ancillary services to juvenile offenders, obtaining child
support, and acting as a guardian ad litem in cases with the Bureau of Milwaukee
Child Welfare.
cRIMINAL LAW
Criminal procedure
Under current law, if a court has reason to doubt the competency of a criminal
defendant, the court may require DHFS to examine the defendant to determine
whether the person is competent to proceed to trial. If the examiner determines that
the person is not competent, but may attain competency with treatment, the court
must suspend the criminal proceedings and commit the defendant to the custody of
DHFS for placement in an appropriate mental health institution for up to 12 months,
or for the maximum sentence specified for the most serious offense with which the
defendant is charged, whichever is less.
Under this bill, if DHFS determines that a defendant is incompetent, DHFS
also determines whether he or she will be treated in a mental health institution or
receive treatment in a jail or a locked unit of a facility.
Under current law, a person found not guilty of a crime by reason of mental
disease or defect may receive supervision in the community under the conditional
release program. If a participant in the conditional release program violates a
condition of his or her release, or is otherwise deemed unsafe for community living,
DHFS may require the person to be detained pending a petition by DHFS to revoke
the person's conditional release. Current law requires DHFS to file the petition
within 48 hours of the person's detention.
This bill extends the time for DHFS to file a petition for revocation of a person's
conditional release from 48 to 72 hours, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and legal
holidays.
Sentencing
The bill creates a Truth-In-Sentencing Phase II Council in DOA to submit a
report containing sentencing guidelines to the legislature and the governor by
January 1, 2008.
This bill eliminates the Sentencing Commission and creates a Bureau of
Criminal Justice Research in the Office of Justice Assistance (OJA), which takes on
some of the duties of the Sentencing Commission. Under the bill, the bureau also
serves as a clearinghouse of justice system data and conducts justice system research
and data analysis, currently performed by OJA. The bureau must prepare a
statistical report detailing standard sentences for felonies and how the sentencing
practices of each circuit court compare to its region and to the state.
Under current law, OJA awards grants to fund county programs that provide
alternatives to prosecution and incarceration for criminal offenders who abuse
alcohol or other drugs. This bill requires the county with the highest violent crime
rate to apply for a grant and provides that, upon approval of the application, OJA
must award the county a grant of $250,000 for 2008 and $500,000 for 2009.
The bill also requires the county that has the highest violent crime rate to
submit a plan to OJA for conducting presentencing assessments of a target group of
people who commit a Class F to I felony or a misdemeanor for the purpose of collecting
information that courts may use at sentencing. Upon approval of the plan, OJA must
award the county $250,000 for 2008 and $500,000 for 2009 to perform presentencing
assessments of offenders.
Under current law, when a court imposes a sentence on a person who has
committed a crime or places a person who has committed a crime on probation, the
person must pay a crime victim and witness assistance surcharge of $60 for each
misdemeanor and $85 for each felony. Most of the surcharge is allocated to county
programs for crime victims and witnesses and to provide awards to crime victims.
The rest of the surcharge is used to fund services for victims of sexual assaults.
Also under current law, if a person is charged with a crime for conduct that could
also be prosecuted as a civil offense and the person agrees to pay a forfeiture as part
of an agreement to have the prosecution deferred or suspended, the court must
impose, in addition to the forfeiture, a crime victim and witness assistance surcharge
of $60 (if the person was originally charged with a misdemeanor) or $85 (if the person
was originally charged with a felony).
Under this bill, a court must impose the crime victim and witness assistance
surcharge if: 1) a person is charged with one or more crimes in a complaint; 2) as a
result of the complaint being amended, the person is charged with a civil offense in
lieu of one of those crimes; and 3) the court finds that the person committed that civil
offense. Under the bill, all money collected in such cases must be used to fund county
programs for crime victims and witnesses and to provide awards to crime victims.
Law Enforcement
Currently, OJA awards grants to cities to employ uniformed police officers
whose primary duty is beat patrolling. This bill authorizes OJA to provide additional
grants to first class cities to employ additional uniformed police officers whose duties
may or may not include beat patrolling.
Under current law, OJA awards grants to law enforcement agencies for digital
recording equipment for making audio or audio and visual recordings of custodial
interrogations or for training personnel to use such equipment. This bill eliminates
these grants.
education
Primary and secondary education
Current law generally limits the increase in the total amount of revenue per
pupil that a school district may receive from general school aids and property taxes
in a school year to the amount of revenue increase allowed per pupil in the previous
school year increased by the percentage change in the consumer price index. The
limit does not apply to school districts in which the amount of per pupil revenue is
less than $8,400. This bill increases this amount to $8,700 for the 2007-08 school
year and to $9,000 for any subsequent school year.
Currently, if a school district's enrollment is declining, its revenue limit is
increased by the amount of additional revenue that would have been calculated had
the decline in enrollment been 25 percent of what it was. This bill increases the
district's revenue limit by the additional amount that would have been calculated
had there been no decline in enrollment.
The bill also provides that, if a school district's revenue limit, as calculated
before any adjustments, is less than the district's base revenue from the previous
school year, the district's initial revenue limit would be set at the prior year's base
revenue.
This bill provides that, beginning in the 2008-09 school year, a school district
may exceed its revenue limit in any school year by $25,000 for up to 500 pupils
enrolled in the district in grades 9 to 12 and by an additional $25,000 for each
additional 500 pupils enrolled in the district in grades 9 to 12. A school district must
work in partnership with a local law enforcement agency to develop a school safety
plan and must submit the plan to DPI. The excess revenue must be used to pay for
certain specified safety expenses.
This bill provides that, beginning in the 2008-09 school year, a school district
may exceed its revenue limit in any school year by the amount spent in that school
year to provide teacher mentoring activities, required by DPI by rule, for initial
educators. An initial educator is an individual who has successfully completed an
approved professional education program and is licensed by the department for the
first time in a particular level or category. A school district may exceed its revenue
limit by up to $2,160 per initial educator, less any grant money received by the school
district for that initial educator.
Current law allows an eligible school board to enter into a five-year renewable
student achievement guarantee (SAGE) contract with DPI to reduce class size to 15
pupils in grades kindergarten to three in schools with specified low-income
enrollment. Eligible schools receive $2,250 for each low-income pupil enrolled in
grades eligible for SAGE funding. The most recent set of SAGE contracts expired at
the end of the 2004-05 school year.
This bill authorizes a new installment of renewable, five-year SAGE contracts
beginning in the 2008-09 school year. DPI must give priority in awarding new SAGE
contracts to schools with the highest percentage of low-income pupils.
Currently, under the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP), the state
pays for certain pupils to attend private schools located in the city of Milwaukee. For
each pupil attending a private school under the MPCP, the state pays the lesser of
the private school's educational cost per pupil or the amount paid per pupil in the
previous school year under the MPCP increased by the percentage change in general
school aid over the previous school year. State aid to the Milwaukee Public Schools
(MPS) is then reduced by an amount equal to 45 percent of the amount paid by the
state for the MPCP.
This bill maintains the 45 percent reduction in state aid paid for up to 15,000
pupils attending private schools under the MPCP, but eliminates the reduction for
all pupils above 15,000.
Under current law, to continue in the MPCP, a private school must submit an
independent financial audit and evidence of sound fiscal practices to DPI by
September 1 following a year in which the private school participated in the MPCP.
This bill requires each private school participating in the MPCP to pay to DPI
an annual, nonrefundable fee in an amount to be determined by DPI. DPI must use
the fees to evaluate the financial audits and evidence of sound fiscal practices.
This bill authorizes DPI to pay up to $5,000,000 in the 2007-08 school year and
up to $10,000,000 annually thereafter to the Milwaukee Board of School Directors
to implement initiatives to improve pupil academic achievement in all grades. The
board must submit a plan to DOA for its approval that describes the initiatives
planned and the research showing that the initiatives have a positive effect on pupil
academic achievement.
This bill directs MPS to reduce by $150 the fee for each pupil who enrolls in a
driver education program offered by the school district and who meets income
eligibility standards for a free or reduced lunch plan. For each pupil who successfully
completes the driver education program, DPI must reimburse MPS $150 per eligible
pupil or a prorated amount if the number of eligible pupils exceeds the amount of aid
available. The aid is paid from the transportation fund.
This bill allows the city of Milwaukee to establish one residential charter school
of no more than 300 pupils. If the city does so, the per pupil reimbursement rate for
the state's payment to the school is twice the rate for other charter schools.
This bill changes the funding source for pupil transportation aid from the
general fund to the transportation fund.
Beginning in the 2007-08 school year, this bill increases the annual
reimbursement rate for school districts that transport pupils more than 12 miles to
school from $180 per pupil so transported to $220 per pupil so transported.
Beginning in the 2008-09 fiscal year, this bill authorizes DPI to award grants
to school boards to implement four-year-old kindergarten programs. A school board
may receive an initial grant of up to $3,000 for each pupil enrolled in a four-year-old
kindergarten program in the school district and a second grant, in the succeeding
school year, of up to $1,500 for each such pupil.
Under current law, the state reimburses school boards and private schools 10
cents for each breakfast served under the School Breakfast Program. This bill raises
the reimbursement rate to 15 cents.
