Communications
August 24, 2011
Patrick Fuller
Assembly Chief Clerk
A487
17 West Main Street, Suite 401
Madison, WI 53703
Dear Chief Clerk Fuller:
I would like to inform you that I will be resigning my position as the State Representative for the 95th Assembly District at the end of the day on Friday, August 26, 2011.
I will be sworn in as the State Senator for the 32nd Senate District on Saturday, August 27, 2011.
Please do not hesitate to contact me personally if you have any questions or require additional information.
Sincerely,
Jennifer k. Shilling
State Representative
95th Assembly District
__________________
August 25, 2011
Patrick Fuller
Assembly Chief Clerk
17 West Main Street, Suite 401
Madison, WI 53703
Dear Chief Clerk Fuller:
Please add my name as a co-sponsor of Senate Bill 18, relating to requiring political subdivisions to pay health insurance premiums for survivors of a law enforcement officer who dies, or has died, in the line of duty.
Sincerely,
Jessica King
State Senator
18th Senate District
__________________
August 23, 2011
Patrick Fuller
Assembly Chief Clerk
17 West Main Street, Suite 401
Madison, WI 53703
Dear Patrick:
I am pleased to transmit to you the following reports to the 2011 Legislature on legislation introduced by the Joint Legislative Council:
RL 2011-12 Special Committee on Review of the managed Forest Land Program
I would appreciate your including this letter in the Journal for the information of the membership. Additional copies of these reports are available at the Legislative Council Staff offices, One East Main, Suite 401, or from our web page at
http://www.legis.state.wi.us/lc.
Sincerely,
Terry C. Anderson
Joint Legislative Council
Director
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Agency Reports
State of Wisconsin
Legislative Audit Bureau
Madison
August 25, 2011
To the Honorable, the Assembly:
The Legislative Audit Bureau is required by s.
13.94 (1)(dc), Wis. Stats., to contract for the performance of an actuarial audit of the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) at least once every five years. After a formal request-for-proposal process, a contract was awarded to the Segal Company for an independent audit of the actuarial valuation as of December 31, 2009. The services provided under this contract primarily focused on verification and analysis of actuarial assumptions and valuation methods used for the WRS by the Department of Employee Trust Funds (ETF) and its consulting actuary, Gabriel, Roeder, Smith and Company.
Enclosed is the actuary's audit report along with responses from ETF and its consulting actuary. The findings, conclusions, and recommendations in the report are those of Segal. Audit Bureau staff managed the audit contract but were not involved in the fieldwork, analysis, or writing of the audit report.
Segal concludes that the stated methods and assumptions used in the 2009 actuarial valuation were reasonable and properly employed in determining the costs of the WRS and notes that the five-year smoothing mechanism used for the WRS is reasonable and meets actuarial standards. Segal also offers several recommendations to improve the consulting actuary's annual actuarial valuations, including working with ETF to improve the presentation of asset information, expanding the description of the actuarial cost method, and applying an assumption related to optional forms of payment elected by some members who retire after a certain age.
Segal's actuarial audit does not evaluate various changes to the WRS that were implemented after December 31, 2009, including changes enacted as part of
2011 Wisconsin Acts 10 and
32. Changes to actuarial economic assumptions for the WRS that the ETF Board approved in March 2011, including a reduction of the investment return assumption from 7.8 percent to 7.2 percent, likewise occurred outside of the valuation period covered by Segal's audit and therefore were not evaluated.
We acknowledge the professional manner in which Segal staff performed this independent actuarial audit and appreciate the cooperation provided by staff of ETF and its consulting actuary.
Sincerely,
Joe Chrisman
Interim State Auditor