4. Under current law, DOJ represents the state, state agencies, and state
employees in certain legal proceedings, reviews, and actions. Under this bill, DOJ
represents the Board of Trustees as a department of state government and the
officials, employees, and agents of the board as state officials, employees, and agents
for the purpose of representation in civil and criminal proceedings, and, upon
request, for the purpose of appearing for and representing the board or its officials,
employees, or agents at an administrative or civil court proceeding.
This bill directs the Board of Regents of the UW System to submit a plan to the
secretary of administration by October 1, 2012, for the conversion of the
UW-Milwaukee to an authority.
Current law allows the Board of Regents to charge different tuition rates to
resident and nonresident students. Current law also includes nonresident tuition
exemptions, under which certain nonresident students pay resident tuition rates.
One of the exemptions applies to an alien who is not a legal permanent resident of
the United States and who: 1) graduated from a Wisconsin high school or received
a declaration of equivalency of high school graduation from Wisconsin; 2) was
continuously present in Wisconsin for at least three years following the first day of
attending a Wisconsin high school or immediately preceding receipt of a declaration
of equivalency of high school graduation; and 3) enrolls in a UW System institution
and provides the institution with an affidavit stating that he or she has filed or will
file an application for permanent residency with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration
Services as soon as the person is eligible to do so. This bill eliminates the foregoing
nonresident tuition exemption.
Current law also provides that an alien described above is considered a resident
of this state for purposes of admission to and payment of fees at a technical college
in this state. This bill eliminates that provision.
This bill prohibits a technical college district board's tax levy for operations in
2011 and 2012 from being greater than its tax levy for operations in 2010. If a district
board's levy exceeds the allowable amount, the Technical College System Board must
reduce the district's state aid payments by the amount of the excess levy unless DOR
determines that the district board's excess levy was caused by a clerical error made
by DOR or a taxation district or county clerk.
Current law requires the UW System and each technical college to grant full
remission of fees for 128 credits or eight semesters, whichever is longer, less the
amount of any fees paid under the federal Reserve Officer Training Corps Program,
the federal Veterans Vocational Rehabilitation Act, or the federal Post-9/11 Veterans
Educational Assistance Act of 2008 to an eligible veteran or to the spouse,
unremarried surviving spouse, or child of an eligible veteran.
This bill requires the UW-Madison, the UW System, and a technical college to
grant full remission of fees for 128 credits or eight semesters, whichever is longer,
without reduction for any fees paid under those federal programs.
Other educational and cultural agencies
Under current law, the Higher Educational Aids Board (HEAB) awards
Wisconsin covenant scholar grants to undergraduates enrolled at least half time at
nonprofit public or private institutions of higher education or at tribally controlled
colleges in this state. Currently, the Office of the Wisconsin Covenant Scholars
Program in DOA (office) promotes attendance at nonprofit institutions of higher
education in this state and performs certain duties relating to the administration of
the program.
This bill eliminates the office and the promotional activities performed by the
office and transfers to HEAB the administrative duties currently performed by the
office. The bill also prohibits students from enrolling in the program after September
30, 2011.
Under current law, the Arts Board is attached to the Department of Tourism,
which means that, subject to certain exceptions, the Arts Board exercises its powers,
duties, and functions, including the duty of appointing an executive secretary,
independently of the secretary of tourism.
This bill places the Arts Board in the Department of Tourism so that the Arts
Board exercises all of its powers, duties, and functions under the direction and
supervision of the secretary of tourism, and requires the secretary of tourism to
appoint an executive director of the Arts Board to serve at the pleasure of the
secretary.
Current law generally requires at least 0.02 percent of the appropriation for the
construction, reconstruction, renovation, or remodeling of, or for an addition to, a
state building to be used to acquire works of art for the building (Percent for Art
Program). This bill eliminates the Percent for Art Program.
Environment
Recycling
Current law generally prohibits a person from disposing of certain materials,
such as aluminum containers, in a landfill or incinerator and requires a municipality
or county to operate a recycling or other program to manage solid waste in
compliance with the disposal restrictions. DNR administers a program that provides
financial assistance to local governments that operate recycling programs.
This bill eliminates the requirement that a municipality or county operate a
recycling or other program to manage solid waste in compliance with the disposal
restrictions, eliminates the financial assistance program for local governmental
recycling programs, and prohibits an individual from placing materials such as
aluminum containers with materials to be disposed of in a landfill or incinerator.
Under current law, the main sources of revenue for the segregated recycling and
renewable energy fund are the recycling tipping fee and the recycling surcharge.
Currently, the recycling tipping fee is $7 per ton of solid waste disposed of, other than
certain kinds of high-volume industrial waste.
This bill renames the recycling and renewable energy fund to be the economic
development fund and renames the recycling surcharge to be the economic
development surcharge. The bill directs $4 per ton of the recycling tipping fee to be
deposited in the economic development fund and $3 per ton to be deposited in the
environmental fund.
Water quality
Current law requires DNR to promulgate rules prescribing performance
standards for facilities or practices that cause or may cause water pollution from a
source other than a discernible, confined, and discrete conveyance (nonpoint source
water pollution).
This bill requires DNR to repeal and recreate its nonpoint source water
pollution rules effective 90 days after this bill's effective date and specifies that the
rules may not be more stringent than the requirements under the federal Water
Pollution Control Act. The rules must, to the extent allowed under federal law,
provide that a fixed-date deadline regarding the reduction of runoff from existing
development does not apply to a municipality if the deadline would have a significant
adverse economic impact on that municipality.
Under current law, DNR may promulgate rules that establish effluent
limitations concerning the discharge of phosphorous if the federal Environmental
Protection Agency has not promulgated a phosphorus discharge limitation,
standard, or prohibition. This bill prohibits DNR from establishing phosphorous
effluent limitations that are more stringent than the effluent limitations established
by Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, or Ohio.
Under current law, DNR establishes statewide standards for erosion control at
commercial building construction sites. Plans for erosion control at these sites must
be submitted to, and approved by, DNR or a municipality to which DNR has
delegated authority to act. Current law also requires DNR or a delegated
municipality to inspect erosion control activities and structures at these sites.
This bill transfers the responsibility for administering the erosion control laws
with regard to commercial building construction sites from DNR to DSPS, formerly
called DRL.
Under the Clean Water Fund Program, this state provides financial assistance
for projects that control water pollution, including loans at subsidized interest rates.
Under current law, the following interest rates apply: 60 percent of the market
interest rate for projects that are necessary to prevent a municipality from exceeding
a pollution limit in its wastewater discharge permit, 65 percent of the market
interest rate for projects for the treatment of nonpoint source pollution and urban
storm water runoff, and 70 percent of the market interest rate for projects for
unsewered municipalities. This bill changes the interest rate for all of these kinds
of projects to 80 percent of the market interest rate. This bill sets the present value
of the Clean Water Fund Program subsidies that may be provided during the
2011-13 biennium at $54,400,000 and increases the revenue bonding authority for
the Clean Water Fund Program by $353,000,000.
This state also provides financial hardship assistance to municipalities under
the Clean Water Fund Program. Current law limits the amount of financial hardship
assistance that this state may provide to 15 percent of the total present value of the
Clean Water Fund Program subsidies in a fiscal biennium. This bill changes the
percentage to 5 percent.
Under the Safe Drinking Water Loan Program, this state provides loans at
subsidized rates to local governmental units for construction or modification projects
for public water systems. This bill sets the present value of the Safe Drinking Water
Loan Program subsidies that may be provided during the 2011-13 biennium at
$30,700,000 and increases the general obligation bonding authority for the Safe
Drinking Water Loan Program by $9,400,000.
Bonding
Under current law, DNR administers the targeted runoff management
program to provide financial assistance for projects to reduce nonpoint source water
pollution in areas that have surface water quality problems. This bill increases the
authorized general obligation bonding authority for the targeted runoff
management program by $7,000,000.
Under current law, DNR administers programs to provide financial assistance
for the management of urban storm water runoff and for flood control and riparian
restoration projects. This bill increases the general obligation bonding authority for
these programs by $6,000,000.
Current law authorizes DNR to pay a portion of the costs of a project to remove
contaminated sediment from Lake Michigan or Lake Superior or their tributaries.
This bill increases the bonding authority for sediment removal projects by
$5,000,000.
Current law authorizes DNR to conduct or fund activities to investigate and
remedy environmental contamination in some situations. This bill increases the
authorized bonding authority to finance those activities by $3,000,000.
Other
The petroleum inspection fund, among other things, pays for projects to clean
up discharges from petroleum product storage tanks. This bill transfers $19,500,000
from the petroleum inspection fund to the transportation fund in each year of the
fiscal biennium.
health and human services
Wisconsin Works
The Wisconsin Works (W-2) program under current law, which is administered,
generally, by W-2 agencies under contracts with DCF, provides work experience and
benefits for low-income custodial parents who are at least 18 years old, as well as job
search assistance to noncustodial parents who are required to pay child support, to
minor custodial parents, and to pregnant women who are not custodial parents.
Also, an individual who is the parent of a child under the age of 13 or, if the child is
disabled, under the age of 19, who needs child care services to participate in various
educational or work activities, and who satisfies other eligibility criteria may receive
a subsidy for child care services under W-2's child care subsidy program (Wisconsin
Shares). This bill makes a number of miscellaneous changes to W-2, including the
following:
1. Limiting the length of time during which a participant may participate in
a trial job to three months and in a trial job placement to 24 months; limiting the
length of time during which a participant may participate in a community service job
to six months and in a community service job placement to 24 months; and limiting
the length of time during which a participant may participate in a transitional
placement to 24 months.
2. Providing that a participant in a community service job placement may be
required to engage in certain job-related activities for up to 30 hours per week and
in educational or training activities for up to ten hours per week and that a
participant in a transitional placement may be required to engage in certain
specified activities for up to 28 hours per week and in educational or training
activities for up to 12 hours per week.
3. Reducing the maximum monthly grant received by a participant in a
community service job placement from $673 to $653 and by a participant in a
transitional placement from $628 to $608.
4. Eliminating the requirement that DCF make certain determinations before
determining that a participant is ineligible for three months to participate in W-2
due to a failure to participate in an assigned placement and the requirement that,
before a participant who has refused to participate in an assigned placement loses
eligibility for three months, he or she must be given a conciliation period.
5. Eliminating the requirement that, after a W-2 agency has provided written
notice to a W-2 participant whose benefits are about to be reduced by at least 20
percent or whose eligibility is about to be terminated, the W-2 agency also must
orally explain the proposed action.
The bill also eliminates the transitional jobs demonstration project, under
which DCF provides wage subsidies to employers who employ eligible individuals.
Current law prohibits DCF from increasing the maximum Wisconsin Shares
child care provider reimbursement rates in 2009, 2010, or before June 30, 2011.
Current law also requires DCF to submit to JCF a plan for implementing the child
care quality rating system (quality rating plan). This bill provides that before June
30, 2013, DCF may not increase the maximum Wisconsin Shares child care provider
reimbursement rates, but may modify an individual child care provider's
reimbursement rate on the basis of the child care provider's quality rating, as that
term is described in the quality rating plan, as follows: a provider who receives a
one-star rating may be denied reimbursement; one who receives a two-star rating
may have the maximum reimbursement rate reduced by up to 5 percent; one who
receives a three-star rating will receive reimbursement at the maximum rate; one
who receives a four-star rating may have the maximum reimbursement rate
increased by up to 5 percent; and one who receives a five-star rating may have the
maximum reimbursement rate increased by up to 10 percent. In addition, DCF is
authorized to use a severity-index tool, as that term is described in the quality rating
plan, to disqualify providers who receive low-quality ratings from providing child
care services in Wisconsin Shares.
The bill authorizes DCF to do any of the following to reduce costs under
Wisconsin Shares: 1) implement a waiting list; 2) increase the copayments paid by
individuals who receive a child care subsidy; 3) adjust the amount of reimbursement
paid to child care providers; or 4) adjust the gross income levels for eligibility for child
care subsidies.
Public assistance
Under current law, income maintenance programs are administered by
counties, by tribal governing bodies through contracts with DHS, and by the
Milwaukee County enrollment services unit within DHS (Milwaukee unit) in
Milwaukee County. Income maintenance programs are currently specified in the
statutes as the Medical Assistance program (MA), including BadgerCare Plus; the
food stamp program; and the funeral, burial, and cemetery expenses program under
which counties pay cemetery, funeral, and burial expenses for decedents who, during
life, received certain public assistance benefits.
This bill requires DHS to establish an income maintenance administration unit
(IM unit) in DHS to administer income maintenance programs in all counties. Until
the IM unit is prepared to assume income maintenance administration from counties
and from the Milwaukee unit, DHS may continue to delegate income maintenance
administrative functions to counties, on a county-by-county basis. The Milwaukee
unit is eliminated when the IM unit assumes income maintenance program
administration in Milwaukee County. This bill requires that the IM unit administer
income maintenance programs statewide no later than May 1, 2012. This bill
transfers the food stamp program to DCF on January 1, 2013.
Under current law, DHS administers two programs that provide supplemental
payments to individuals who are eligible to receive federal supplemental security
income (SSI). This bill transfers the administration of these programs to DCF.
Under current law, qualified aliens receive food stamp benefits. Federal law
allows, but does not require, a state to provide those benefits, and any state that does
provide such benefits must pay the whole cost itself. This bill eliminates the
provision of food stamp benefits to qualified aliens in this state.
Under current law, DHS pays the cost of medical treatment for persons with
chronic kidney disease at a rate equal to the allowable charges under Medicare. This
bill provides that DHS will pay for medical treatment for such persons at a rate that
is determined by DHS and that does not exceed the allowable charges under
Medicare.
Medical Assistance
Under current law, DHS administers MA, which is a jointly funded federal and
state program that provides health services to individuals who have limited
resources. MA provides provides family planning as a benefit to its recipients.
Currently, DHS may request a waiver to conduct and may implement a project to
provide family planning services under MA to men between the ages of 15 and 44
whose family income is not more than 200 percent of the federal poverty level. This
bill eliminates the ability on January 1, 2012, for DHS to request a waiver to conduct
or to implement a project providing family planning services under MA to men.
Under the expanded Medicare buy-in program under current law, MA pays
premiums, deductibles, and coinsurance for Medicare coverage for elderly or
disabled persons who are entitled to coverage under Medicare Part A or under
Medicare Part A and Part B and whose income and resources are sufficiently low to
satisfy the eligibility criteria. Current law limits any coinsurance payment for a
service under Medicare Part B to the allowable charge for the service under MA
minus the Medicare payment. This bill limits any coinsurance payment for a service
under Medicare Part A to the allowable charge for the service under MA minus the
Medicare payment.
The Birth to 3 waiver program and the disabled children's long-term support
program are MA waiver programs that permit DHS to offer home and
community-based services to children under MA. Counties pay the nonfederal share
of MA costs for services provided under the Birth to 3 waiver program and for services
provided to some of the children in the disabled children's long-term support
program. Currently, counties administer these programs and pay providers who
provide services under the programs.
Under this bill, DHS must contract with a private entity to administer the Birth
to 3 waiver program and the disabled children's long-term support program. The
private entity must also pay providers for services provided under these programs.
This bill requires counties to pay the following costs by providing funds to DHS,
rather than by paying the costs directly: 1) the nonfederal share of services the
county provides without state funding under the disabled children's long-term
support program; 2) the nonfederal share of benefits provided under the Birth to 3
waiver program; 3) the administration costs for the Birth to 3 waiver program; and
4) the administration costs for services the county provides without state funding
under the disabled children's long-term support program for a participant enrolled
after January 1, 2011.
Under current law, DHS reimburses certain hospitals for hospital care provided
under MA to MA recipients and makes supplemental payments to certain hospitals.
This bill eliminates the supplemental payments from the MA program to essential
access city hospitals.
Certain services related to screenings, home health, reproductive health,
mental health, physical and psychosocial rehabilitation, and other services (covered
services) are among services that are covered under MA. Currently DHS may make
MA payment adjustments to a county department for covered services. DHS then
may decrease a county's allocation of community aids moneys by the amount of MA
payment adjustments paid from general purpose revenue by DHS.
This bill creates a second procedure under which DHS may make payments to
county departments for covered services. Under this procedure, county departments
must submit, annually, certified cost reports to DHS for covered services. DHS must
base the amount of a claim for federal MA funds on the certified cost reports the
county departments submit. For those covered services, under this procedure, DHS
must pay county departments a percentage, as established in the state's most recent
biennial budget, of the federal funds claimed. This bill allows DHS to also pay local
health departments under the second payment procedure.
Currently, DHS makes payments to providers of MA health services and other
payments related to MA out of various appropriation accounts, including a general
purpose revenue (GPR) appropriation account; a program revenue (PR)
appropriation account containing moneys from MA cost sharing, penalty
assessments, and the pharmacy benefits purchasing pool; and the MA trust fund.
This bill creates a PR appropriation account into which moneys received from
provider refunds, third party liability payments, drug rebates, audit recoveries, and
other collections related to expenditures from the GPR appropriation account, the
MA cost-sharing appropriation account, and the MA trust fund for the MA program,
regardless of the fiscal year in which the expenditure was made, are deposited. DHS
may expend the moneys in this PR appropriation account for the same purposes it
expends moneys from the GPR appropriation account for the MA program.
Health
Under current law, DHS administers the Senior Care program, which provides
assistance to the elderly in the purchase of prescription drugs. To be eligible for
Senior Care, a person must be a resident of the state, be at least 65 years of age, not
be a recipient of prescription drug coverage through MA, have a household income
that does not exceed 240 percent of the federal poverty line, and pay a program
enrollment fee. This bill adds as a requirement for eligibility for Senior Care that
the person must apply for and, if eligible, enroll in Medicare Part D, which is a federal
prescription drug assistance program.
Under current law, in certain counties, a person who meets certain functional
and financial criteria and who is either a frail elder or an adult with a physical
disability or a developmental disability is eligible for community-based services
through Family Care, a medical assistance waiver program known as Family Care
Partnership, the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE), or a
self-directed supports options program (known as IRIS). In a county where Family
Care, Family Care Partnership, PACE, or IRIS is available, this bill caps enrollment
in an available program at the number of participants in that program on a specific
date for the 2011-13 biennium. This bill also prohibits the expansion of Family Care
to counties in which the program is not available on July 1, 2011, during the 2011-13
biennium, unless DHS determines that the expansion is cost-effective.
Under current law, DHS provides funding for family planning services,
including maintaining a state plan for community-based family planning programs
and specific annual grants. This bill eliminates this family planning services
funding.
Under current law, DHS regulates various types of long-term care providers,
including one- and two-bed adult family homes. This bill eliminates the
requirement that DHS regulate one- and two-bed adult family homes and the
requirement that DHS certify one- and two-bed adult family homes in order for
these homes to provide services to a person who is a recipient of Family Care, a
community-based long-term care MA waiver program, or supplemental security
income.
Under current law, the fees that a health care provider may charge for copies
of patient health care records are set by statute. This bill eliminates statutory fees
for copies of patient health care records and requires that DHS promulgate rules to
establish maximum fees that a health care provider may charge for copies of patient
health care records under certain circumstances.
This bill authorizes DHS to set fees by administrative rule for testing infants
for congenital disorders.
Other health and human services
Under current law, a county with a population of less than 500,000 must
establish a county department of social services and may establish a county
department of human services. A county with a population of 500,000 or more must
establish both a department of social services and a department of human services.
Two or more counties that are contiguous and that each have a population of less than
500,000 may combine to form a department of social services or a department of
human services on a multicounty basis.
This bill authorizes two or more counties to combine to form a department of
social services or a department of human services on a multicounty basis, regardless
of whether they are contiguous and regardless of population.
Current law requires DCF to establish a pilot program under which not more
than four counties and, in Milwaukee County, one licensed child welfare agency
(agency) may employ alternative responses to a report of suspected or threatened
child abuse or neglect. This bill eliminates those caps on the number of county
agencies that may participate in the pilot program.
insurance
Current law requires health insurance policies and self-insured governmental
and school district health plans to cover the cost of contraceptives prescribed by a
health care provider and of outpatient consultations, examinations, procedures, and
medical services that are necessary to prescribe, administer, maintain, or remove a
contraceptive. This bill eliminates these requirements.
The state life insurance fund (fund), administered by OCI, may issue any type
of life insurance policy, with a limit not exceeding $10,000, to any state resident. This
bill prohibits the fund from issuing any life insurance policies on or after the date on
which this bill becomes a law except for policies issued on the basis of applications
that were received before that date.
justice
Under current law, the Office of Justice Assistance (OJA) makes grants to
counties that establish programs to provide alternatives to prosecuting and
incarcerating criminal offenders who abuse alcohol or other drugs. This bill requires
counties that receive these grants to provide a 25 percent funding match.
Under current law, the OJA provides, in each fiscal year, a $20,000 grant to each
of 14 child advocacy centers within the state for education, training, medical advice,
and quality assurance. This bill reduces that amount to $17,000 in each fiscal year.
Under current law, when a person is convicted of a crime or, if a person was
charged with a crime but the criminal charge was amended to a civil offense, when
a court finds that the person committed the civil offense, the person pays a crime
victim and witness assistance surcharge. DOJ uses a percentage of the surcharge
to provide grants for sexual assault victim services. This bill specifies that DOJ may
use some of the surcharge funds to pay the costs of administering the grant program.
local government
Under current law, local levy limits are applied to the property tax levies that
were imposed in December 2010. Current law prohibits any city, village, town, or
county (political subdivision) from increasing its levy by a percentage that exceeds
its "valuation factor," which is the greater of either 3 percent or the percentage
change in the political subdivision's equalized value due to new construction, less
improvements removed.
This bill extends the levy limits to the property tax levies that will be imposed
in December 2011 and 2012, and changes the limit to the greater of either zero
percent or the percentage change in the political subdivision's equalized value due
to new construction, less improvements removed.
Also under current law, the base amount of a political subdivision's levy in any
year is the maximum allowable levy for the immediately preceding year. Under this
bill, the maximum base amount of a political subdivision's levy is limited to its actual
levy for the immediately preceding year.
This bill also requires a political subdivision to reduce its levy limit if the
amount of its levy in the current year for its payment of debt service for debt issued
before July 1, 2005, is less than its levy for that purpose in the previous year. The
amount of the levy reduction is the amount by which its levy for such debt service was
reduced.
Generally under current law a village with a population of at least 5,000 is
required to provide police protection services by creating its own police department,
by contracting for police protection services with a political subdivision, or by
creating a joint police department with another city, village, or town (municipality).
Also under current law, in general, a village with a population of at least 5,500 is
required to provide fire protection services by methods that are similar to the way
in which it provides police services.
