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.
Current law also authorizes any village to provide police and fire protection
services (protection services) in one of two additional ways. The first way is by using
a combined protective services department, which had to have been created before
January 1, 1987, and in which the same person may be required to perform police
protection and fire protection duties (protection duties). The second way is by
requiring persons in a police department or fire department, alone or in combination
with persons designated as police officers or fire fighters, to perform protection
duties, subject to the limitation that those persons were required to perform those
duties before January 1, 1987.
Generally under current law, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th class cities (presently all cities
other than Milwaukee) with populations of at least 4,000 must have police
departments and fire departments, and may have joint departments with other
municipalities.
Under a decision of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Local Union No. 487,
IAFF-CIO, v. City of Eau Claire, 147 Wis. 2d 519 (1989), cities may not create
combined protective services departments or require persons in a police department
or fire department, alone or in combination with persons designated as police officers
or fire fighters, to perform protection duties.
This bill authorizes 2nd, 3rd, and 4th class cities, and towns, to provide
protection services in the same two additional ways that villages may do so. The bill
also removes the limitations on villages relating to the creation of a department, and
the requirement relating to the performance of duties, before January 1, 1987.
If a city creates a combined protective services department, the city must create
a chief of the department and must abolish the offices of chief of police and fire chief,
which offices are required under current law. The chief of a combined protective
services department has the same authority as the chief of police and fire chief.
Under current law, to participate in a public library system a municipal, county,
or joint public library (local library) or a county must meet a maintenance of effort
requirement, which relates to the amount of financial support provided to the local
library or by the county for library services over the previous three years. This bill
repeals these maintenance of effort requirements.
This bill authorizes a county board to direct its clerk of courts to operate a
self-help center in the county courthouse to provide individuals with information
regarding the court system, including small claims and family law proceedings,
where to obtain legal advice and forms, and how to represent oneself in court. A
self-help center may be staffed by county employees or volunteers, although no staff
member may provide legal advice to self-help center patrons. The bill also
authorizes a county to impose a fee on individuals who use the services provided by
a self-help center.
Natural resources
Stewardship
Current law authorizes the state to incur public debt by issuing bonds for
certain conservation activities under the stewardship program, which DNR
administers. The state may authorize bonds to acquire state land or easements that
are under the jurisdiction of DNR for areas such as state forests and state parks and
the Lower Wisconsin State Riverway. Also, DNR may issue bonds to award grants
or state aid to certain governmental units and to nonprofit conservation
organizations in order to acquire lands, easements, or development rights.
This bill limits acquisitions of land, easements, and other rights or interests in
land under the stewardship program to only acquisitions of land in fee simple, as
opposed to just an easement or development rights, and acquisitions of certain
easements for forestry purposes (forestry easements), easements for state trails or
the Ice Age Trail, and easements that are necessary to provide access to lands or
waters that are required to be open to the public and for which there is no public
access or limited public access. Under the bill, an easement acquired for a state trail,
for the Ice Age Trail, or to provide access to land or a body of water may not be more
than five acres in size.
The bill requires a city, village, town, or county to adopt a nonbinding resolution
that either supports or opposes a proposed acquisition of land or easement, except
for forestry easements, and requires DNR to consider the resolution in determining
whether to approve the acquisition.
Under current law, lands, and certain easements on lands, acquired under the
stewardship program must be open to the public for nature-based outdoor activities
such as hunting, fishing, hiking, and cross-country skiing, unless the DNR board
determines that the land may be closed to protect public safety or a unique animal
or plant community or to accommodate usership patterns such as conflicts between
these types of activities. This bill eliminates the accommodation of usership patterns
as a reason for prohibiting public access with respect to lands, or easements on lands,
that are not acquired for a state trail or the Ice Age Trail and that are acquired after
the bill becomes law.
Under current law, if a land acquisition or development project under the
stewardship program costs more than $750,000, DNR cannot obligate money from
the stewardship fund for that activity until DNR gives to JCF written notice of the
proposed activity and JCF reviews the obligation under its passive review process.
This bill decreases the $750,000 threshold to $250,000.
Under current law, the acquisition costs to be used in calculating the amount
of a grant under the stewardship program equal the fair market value of the land
being acquired plus any other acquisition costs if the land has been owned by the
person conveying the land for three years or more. If the land has been owned for
one year or more but less than three years, the acquisition costs equal the sum of the
current owner's acquisition price and an annual adjustment increase (adjusted
price). If the land has been owned for less than one year, the acquisition costs equal
the current owner's acquisition price.
Under this bill, the acquisition costs for land that has been owned for one year
or more but less than three years equal the adjusted price or the current fair market
value, whichever is lower. The acquisition costs for land that has been owned for less
than one year equal the current owner's acquisition price or the current fair market
value of the land, whichever is lower.
Other natural resources
Under current law, land that DNR purchases is not subject to property taxes.
Instead, DNR makes annual payments to municipalities for each parcel of land that
the DNR has purchased in those municipalities. This bill eliminates those payments
for land purchased after the bill's effective date.
Under current law, DNR administers a financial assistance program for
projects that increase dam safety and may contract public debt to fund the program.
This bill increases DNR's bonding authority for the program, the debt service on
which is paid from the general fund, by $4,000,000.
Also, under this program, dam owners, including municipalities, generally are
eligible to receive a grant only if DNR has issued a directive to the owner to take
action to increase the dam's safety and the dam owner requests the grant within six
months after having received the directive. This bill eliminates the deadline for
making a grant request under the grant program.
Under current law, a person who owns a snowmobile that is not registered in
this state or that is exempt from registration must display on the snowmobile a trail
use sticker issued by DNR. Current law also requires DNR to calculate an amount
equal to the number of those trail use stickers issued by DNR in the previous fiscal
year multiplied by $15 and to credit this amount to an appropriation for aids to
counties for activities such as trail development and maintenance. This bill
increases the amount by which DNR must multiply the number of trail use stickers
to $32 for purposes of determining the amount to be credited to the appropriation.
occupational regulation
Under current law, DRL directly administers the regulation of real estate
practice in Wisconsin. DRL's duties and powers include issuing licenses to real estate
brokers and sales persons; approving forms for use in real estate practice;
promulgating rules regulating real estate practice; and conducting investigations,
holding hearings, and making findings regarding an alleged violation of real estate
law. Currently, the real estate board (board) conducts disciplinary proceedings and
may discipline licensees. The board also reviews and comments on administrative
rules relating to real estate practice that DRL proposes and advises the secretary of
regulation and licensing regarding real estate practice among other powers.
This bill eliminates the board, creates the Real Estate Examining Board, and
transfers most of DRL's duties and powers regulating real estate practice to the
examining board.
Current law defines the practice of pharmacy to include making therapeutic
alternate drug selections, if made in accordance with written guidelines or
procedures established by a hospital's pharmacy and therapeutics committee and
approved by the hospital's medical staff and approved for a patient by the patient's
physician or advanced practice nurse prescriber.
The bill requires that therapeutic alternate drug selections may also be made
by a skilled nursing facility or an intermediate care facility for persons with mental
retardation. The bill deletes the requirement that the written guidelines or
procedures be approved by the hospital's medical staff and the patient's physician or
advanced practice nurse prescriber.
Under current law, DRL, and various boards in DRL, administers Wisconsin's
professional credentialing laws. DRL is charged with ensuring the safe and
competent practice by credentialed professionals in Wisconsin, such as doctors,
nurses, cosmetologists, real estate agents, and veterinarians. This bill changes
DRL's name to the Department of Safety and Professional Services (DSPS).
Retirement and group insurance
Currently, the Group Insurance Board (GIB) must offer to state employees and
annuitants long-term care insurance policies that have been approved for offering
under contracts established by GIB if an insurance company requests that the policy
be offered. This bill eliminates the authority of an insurance company to require GIB
to offer its long-term care insurance policy.
