By
Representatives Molepske Jr., Garthwaite, Vruwink, M. Williams and Berceau; cosponsored by Senator Taylor
.
To committee on Agriculture.
__________________
Executive Communications
State of Wisconsin
Office of the Governor
Madison
February 11, 2010
To the Honorable Members of the Assembly:
The following bills, originating in the Assembly, have been approved, signed and deposited in the office of the Secretary of State:
Bill Number Act Number Date Approved
Assembly Bill 236114February 11, 2010
Assembly Bill 400117February 11, 2010
Assembly Bill 456118February 11, 2010
Assembly Bill 332119February 11, 2010
Assembly Bill 142123February 11, 2010
Respectfully submitted,
JIm Doyle
Governor
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Referral of Agency Reports
State of Wisconsin
Supreme Court of Wisconsin
Madison
February 11, 2010
To the Honorable, the Legislature:
On February 3, 2010, my Office re-issued our October 1, 2009 report to correct a material reporting error. Specifically, Milwaukee County misclassified a portion of their indigent counsel and guardian ad litem (GAL) costs for calendar year 2008. Milwaukee County re-submitted a corrected 2008 annual report of actual costs and we, in turn, re-issued our October 1st report to correct the statewide GAL total costs for 2008.
To ensure there is no misinterpretation of the February 3rd memo, I want to take this opportunity to clarify that the misclassification of Milwaukee County's 2008 expenditure data was not an intentional misrepresentation of their data. The reporting of 2008 financial data was the first time counties, including Milwaukee County, used the new circuit court uniform chart of accounts as required in
2007 Wisconsin Act 20 when preparing their annual reports. Milwaukee County believed the new instructions required that a specific category of indigent counsel expenditures be included as GAL costs. However, our subsequent discussions with Milwaukee County regarding their reporting of GAL costs concluded that these indigent counsel expenditures should not be classified as GAL costs but should more appropriately be reported in a different section of their annual report. Milwaukee County immediately complied with our request to re-classify this expenditure data. We are reviewing our instructions to determine how they can be clarified so similar reporting errors do not occur in the future.
It is important to note that we are beginning to discover through our new audit process that all counties need guidance to ensure they are properly classifying the counties' revenues and expenditures in compliance with the uniform chart of accounts. We are looking forward to visiting each county over the next few years to improve all counties' reporting of revenue and expenditure data and work towards consistent reporting practices among counties to provide accurate information on county financial support of the circuit courts.
I hope that our re-submission of our October 1st report was not misconstrued in any way. Please direct any questions regarding our re-submission to the court system's Fiscal Officer Brian Lamprech. He can be reached at 608.266.6865 or at
brian.lamprech@wicourts.gov.
Sincerely,
A. John Voelker
Director of State Courts
Referred to committee on Children and Families.
