Tuesday, August 9, 2011
One-Hundredth Regular Session
The Chief Clerk makes the following entries under the above date:
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Assembly amendment 1 to Assembly Bill 70 offered by Representative Williams.
Assembly amendment 1 to Senate Bill 47 offered by Representative Williams.
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Read first time and referred:
Assembly Joint Resolution 52
Relating to: requiring the legislature to enact laws requiring reasonable notice of and public access to meetings of governmental bodies, including the legislature, and making members of the legislature subject to citations and civil penalties for violations of such laws (first consideration).
By
Representatives Richards, Barca, Berceau, Bernard Schaber, Bewley, E. Coggs, D. Cullen, Doyle, Fields, Hebl, Hintz, Hulsey, Mason, Molepske Jr, Pasch, Pocan, Radcliffe, Ringhand, Roys, Seidel, Shilling, Sinicki, Staskunas, Steinbrink and Vruwink; cosponsored by Senators C. Larson, Holperin, Carpenter and S. Coggs.
To committee on Homeland Security and State Affairs
.
Assembly Bill 215
Relating to: requiring a private school that provides child care for children under three years of age to be licensed to operate a child care center.
By
Representatives Bernard Schaber, Grigsby, Pope-Roberts, Berceau, Bernier, Bewley, Hulsey, Pasch, Ringhand and Sinicki; cosponsored by Senators Lassa, Ellis and Taylor.
To committee on Education.
Assembly Bill 216
Relating to: maintenance and removal of vegetation obstructing the view of outdoor advertising signs along highways under the jurisdiction of the Department of Transportation.
By
Representatives Honadel, Bies, Brooks, Kestell, LeMahieu, Mursau, Nerison, Nygren, Spanbauer, Staskunas, Stone, Strachota, Tiffany, Van Roy, Vruwink, Weininger and Wynn; cosponsored by Senators Grothman, Darling, Lasee, Moulton, Olsen and Schultz.
To committee on Transportation.
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Referral of Agency Reports
State of Wisconsin
Department of Health Services
Madison
July 21, 2011
To the Honorable, the Legislature:
The Department of Health Services is pleased to submit to you and the Legislature the report on Wisconsin 's Public Health Emergency Preparedness. The report was prepared by the Division of Public Health, as required by s.
250.03 (3)(b) Wis. Stats.
Wisconsin's Emergency Preparedness Program continues to strengthen the foundation of preparedness through planning, workforce competency development training, and exercises. These efforts among state and local partners assure both individual agency response capability, and strong coordination for regional and statewide response. Highlights from the report, "Prepared-Protecting Wisconsin's Health: Public Health Emergency Preparedness," include:
• Extensive pandemic influenza planning, purchasing of antiviral medication and exercising plans for disease containment.
• Planning for Wisconsin's Special Populations with statewide expert input on a toolkit for local public health agencies.
• Updating Wisconsin's volunteer protection laws and activating the Wisconsin Emergency Assistance Volunteer Registry (WEAVR) to connect healthcare professional resources in a disaster.
• Testing, evaluating and improving emergency response to public health emergencies, terrorism and mass casualty events at the state, regional, local and tribal level.
These successes reflect sustained progress as well as exciting enhancements to Wisconsin's readiness to prevent, detect, investigate, control and recover from a public health emergency.
Dennis G. Smith
Secretary
Referred to committee on Health.
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Agency Reports
State of Wisconsin
Legislative Audit Bureau
Madison
August 4, 2011
To the Honorable, the Assembly:
As requested by the Public Service Commission (PSC), we have completed a financial audit of the Universal Service Fund (USF). Our audit report contains our unqualified opinion on the financial statements prepared by USF management for the fiscal years ending June 30, 2010 and 2009.
The USF funds a variety of telecommunications and other programs. It is funded by assessments on telecommunications providers that are typically recovered from consumers. In fiscal year (FY) 2009-10, provider assessments totaled $51.7 million and the USF provided $41.8 million in funding for 13 programs operated by 4 state agencies.
Two programs-the Educational Telecommunications Access Program and Aid to Public Library Systems-represented nearly 80.0 percent of the USF's FY 2009-10 program expenditures. The USF has been the sole funding source for Aid to Public Library Systems since FY 2008-09. The Educational Telecommunications Access Program is managed by the Department of Administration (DOA) and subsidizes more than 900 K-12 schools, technical colleges, public libraries, and other educational institutions' access to a broadband voice, video, and data network known as the BadgerNet Converged Network. Our report includes a recommendation for DOA to ensure that an administrative fee it charges the USF for services related to use of the BadgerNet Converged Network reflects only the actual costs of providing those services. We estimate that at least $4.3 million of $5.4 million that DOA lapsed to the General Fund to meet budgeting requirements under
2007 Wisconsin Act 226 and
2009 Wisconsin Acts 2 and
28 represents excess administrative service fees paid by the USF in the past five years.
We appreciate the courtesy and cooperation extended to us by staff of the PSC and three other agencies that manage USF programs-DOA, the Department of Public Instruction, and the University of Wisconsin System-as well as by the USF's administrator, Wipfli LLP.
Respectfully submitted,
Joe Chrisman
Interim State Auditor
