DFI Department of Financial Institutions
DHS Department of Health Services
DMA Department of Military Affairs
DNR Department of Natural Resources
DOA Department of Administration
DOC Department of Corrections
DOJ Department of Justice
DOR Department of Revenue
DOT Department of Transportation
DPI Department of Public Instruction
DSPS Department of Safety and Professional Services
DVA Department of Veterans Affairs
DWD Department of Workforce Development
JCF Joint Committee on Finance
LRB Legislative Reference Bureau
OCI Office of the Commissioner of Insurance
PSC Public Service Commission
SHS State Historical Society
TCS Technical College System
UW University of Wisconsin
WEDC Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation
WHEDA Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority
WHEFA Wisconsin Health and Educational Facilities Authority
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AGRICULTURE
This bill changes the amount of license fees and agricultural chemical cleanup
surcharges that manufacturers and distributors of fertilizer and of soil or plant
additives, manufacturers and labelers of pesticides, dealers and distributors of
restricted-use pesticides, and commercial applicators of pesticides are required to
pay to DATCP, and provides that many of these fees are reduced depending on the
amount available in the agricultural chemical cleanup fund. The bill also requires
a licensed pesticide manufacturer or labeler who stops selling or distributing a
pesticide to pay a final license fee and a final agricultural chemical cleanup
surcharge, and changes the amount of each license fee received from a pesticide
manufacturer or labeler that is deposited into the environmental fund. The bill also
eliminates the requirement that a pesticide manufacturer or labeler pay an
environmental cleanup surcharge for certain pesticide products intended for use on
wood, and creates a reduced feed inspection fee and weights and measures inspection
fee for licensed commercial feed distributors who distribute less than 200 tons of
commercial feed per year. In addition, the bill eliminates the classification of an
“exempt buyer,” which under current law allows certain licensed commercial feed
manufacturers or distributors to claim credits against certain required inspection
fees. The bill also increases the maximum amount of corrective action costs, incurred
in response to a harmful discharge of an agricultural chemical, that may be incurred
while still remaining eligible for a 75 percent reimbursement from DATCP.
This bill repeals the farm to school program, under which DATCP promotes
programs that connect schools with nearby farms to provide children with locally
produced foods in school meals, and eliminates the farm to school council, which
advises DATCP and reports to the legislature about the needs and opportunities for
farm to school programs.
This bill increases the general obligation bonding authority for the Soil and
Water Resource Management Program, which awards grants to counties to help fund
their land and water conservation activities, by $7,000,000. The bill also requires
DATCP and DNR, when preparing their annual grant allocation plan for making
these grants, to consider the existence of any impaired water bodies or agricultural
enterprise areas, and to give priority to projects that are in or near, or that affect,
those areas.
This bill transfers the Agricultural Education and Workforce Development
Council from DATCP to DWD and adds the secretary of workforce development as
a member of the council's executive committee. In addition, the bill requires the
Veterinary Examining Board to create, by rule, a procedure for addressing
allegations that a licensed veterinarian's or veterinary technician's ability to practice
is impaired by alcohol or other drugs.
Commerce and economic development
Economic development
This bill makes several changes to the appropriations for WEDC, including
capping WEDC's expenditure of general purpose revenue at $12,474,000 in fiscal
year 2017-18 and $18,774,000 in each fiscal year thereafter and requiring that the
balance in the appropriation from the economic development fund for WEDC's
operations and programs be $0 before WEDC may expend moneys from its general
purpose revenue appropriation for that purpose.
This bill repeals the prohibition that, with one exception, WEDC may not
originate any new loan after June 30, 2017. Instead, the bill places the following
limitations on each loan WEDC originates after that date:
1. With one exception, the loan must be funded, not from appropriations, but
only from repayments to WEDC of other loans.
2. The loan may not be forgivable upon the loan recipient's achievement of one
or more conditions or goals.
The bill also requires each new lending program WEDC implements or
administers to adhere as closely as practicable to commonly accepted commercial
lending practices.
Under this bill, WEDC may cancel the designation of an enterprise zone if
WEDC revokes all of the certifications for tax benefits within that zone. After WEDC
cancels a designation, WEDC may designate a new enterprise zone. The bill also
provides that if a current enterprise zone expires after 12 years, as required under
current law, WEDC may designate a new enterprise zone.
This bill specifies that WEDC may certify no more than $10,000,000 of tax
credits under the historic rehabilitation tax credit each year. The bill also requires
that the tax credits be awarded competitively, based on the potential to create jobs,
the benefit to the state of certifying the credit relative to the cost of the credit, the
projected impact on the local economy, the likelihood that the activity would occur
without the credit, and the number of historic rehabilitation tax credits certified in
the same county or municipality in prior years. In addition, the bill provides that if
the activity for which the person claims a credit creates fewer full-time jobs than
projected, as reported to DOR, the person must repay to DOR the amount of the credit
claimed in proportion to the number of full-time jobs created compared to the
number of full-time jobs projected.
This bill provides that WEDC must provide at least $500,000 in grants in each
of the fiscal years 2017-18 and 2018-19 through its grant program for fabrication
laboratories.
Under current law, WEDC may certify a business as a qualified new business
venture if, among other requirements, for taxable years beginning after December
31, 2010, the business has not received more than $8,000,000 in investments that
qualified for tax credits under the early stage seed investment program. This bill
raises that threshold to $12,000,000 for taxable years beginning after December 31,
2016.
Business organizations and financial institutions
This bill specifies one-hour and four-hour expedited processing fees for
business entity filings with DFI. Under current law, DFI establishes all expedited
processing fees by rule.
Correctional system
Adult correctional system
This bill eliminates the parole commission as of January 1, 2018, and transfers
to DOC the responsibility for interviewing inmates who are eligible for parole,
making parole decisions, and determining appropriate programming for inmates
seeking to be paroled. Under current law, a person who is convicted of committing
a crime before December 31, 1999, may become eligible for parole after being
confined in prison, a county house of corrections, or certain other facilities for a
portion of his or her sentence for the crime. When he or she becomes eligible for
parole, an eight-member parole commission within DOC consisting of a chairperson
nominated by the governor and seven commission members appointed by the
chairperson handles parole matters.
This bill directs the Legislative Audit Bureau to conduct a study of the policies
and procedures of DOC and the Division of Hearings and Appeals in DOA for the
probation and parole revocation process.
Juvenile correctional system
This bill increases from 16 to 18 the age under which a person who is sentenced
to the Wisconsin state prisons must be placed at a juvenile correctional facility or a
secured residential care center for children and youth, unless DOC determines based
on various factors that placement in a state prison, other than the Wisconsin Secure
Program Facility, is appropriate.
This bill changes the amounts that DOC charges, or that DCF deducts from
allocations, to counties for the costs of certain juvenile correctional services DOC
provides according to per person daily cost assessments (daily rates). The bill
establishes the following daily rates:
1. For fiscal year 2017-18, the daily rate is $344 for care in a Type 1 juvenile
correctional facility, and $344 for care for juveniles transferred from a juvenile
correctional institution.
2. For fiscal year 2018-19, the daily rate is $352 for care in a Type 1 juvenile
correctional facility, and $352 for care for juveniles transferred from a juvenile
correctional institution.
Courts and procedure
Public defender
This bill consolidates several appropriations to the Office of the State Public
Defender into one general appropriation to cover all operational costs of the Office
of the State Public Defender. The bill also allows the Public Defender Board to
request authorization for certain additional full-time or part-time positions to be
funded from general purpose revenues from the governor rather than from JCF.
Other courts and procedure
This bill also authorizes the Joint Committee on Employment Relations to
review and establish annual salaries for judges and justices under a proposal
submitted by the director of state courts. Under current law, annual salaries for
judges and justices are reviewed and established in the state compensation plan in
the same manner as positions in the state classified service.
This bill moves the appropriations for administering the Judicial Commission
to the Supreme Court. Under current law, the Judicial Commission investigates any
misconduct or permanent disability of a judge or court commissioner. The Supreme
Court reviews and determines the appropriate discipline or action to take in
response to the Judicial Commission's investigation.
Generally under current law, when a petition is filed for judicial review of an
agency action, the agency must provide the court with a typewritten or printed record
of the agency's administrative proceeding. The bill allows the Division of Hearings
and Appeals to instead provide a court with a copy of an audio or video recording of
the proceeding, unless the court orders the preparation of a transcript.
This bill eliminates the Judicial Council and its appropriations.
Education
Primary and secondary education
This bill modifies the Youth Options Program, under which a pupil enrolled in
a public school may take one or more courses at an institution of higher education
for high school or postsecondary credit, and renames the program to be the Early
College Credit Program.
Under the current Youth Options Program, any pupil in the 11th or 12th grades
may apply to an institution of higher education to take one or more courses at the
institution. If the course satisfies high school graduation credits and is not
comparable to a course offered by the school district, the school board must pay the
institution of higher education on behalf of the pupil. If the course is comparable to
a course offered by the school district or is taken for postsecondary credit, the pupil
is responsible for paying for the course.
This bill opens the ECCP to pupils in all high school grades, and explicitly
authorizes a pupil to participate in the ECCP in a summer session or semester. The
bill also changes the method for determining the cost of a college course, assigns a
certain portion of the cost to the state, and specifies the maximum cost to be paid by
the school board, the state, and, for a course taken only for postsecondary credit, by
the pupil. In addition, the bill directs DWD to pay the state's portion of the cost of
tuition. Finally, the bill requires an institution of higher education to admit a pupil
under the program if certain conditions are met.
This bill also restores the part-time Open Enrollment Program to its status
prior to the enactment of the 2013-15 Biennial Budget Act (
2013 Act 20). Prior to
the enactment of
2013 Act 20, a high school pupil could, under the part-time Open
Enrollment Program, apply to take one or two courses at a public school located
outside the pupil's school district of residence under certain circumstances. Under
the part-time OEP, the pupil's resident school board was required to pay to the
nonresident school board an amount equal to the cost of providing the course to the
pupil, as determined by DPI. Also under the part-time OEP, the resident school
board could reject the pupil's application if either of the following applied: 1) the
resident school board determined that the course conflicted with the pupil's
individualized education program; or 2) the cost of paying for the pupil to attend the
course would impose an undue financial burden on the resident school district.
This bill requires DPI to include in the annual accountability reports prepared
for schools and school districts additional information about high school pupils,
including the number of pupils attending a course through the part-time OEP or
ECCP programs, the number of pupils participating in a youth apprenticeship, and
the number of pupils earning industry-recognized credentials.
This bill eliminates various requirements that apply to school boards, including
1) that a school board annually schedule a minimum number of hours of direct pupil
instruction; 2) that a school board hold a monthly regular school board meeting; 3)
that a school board not enter into an employment contract with a school
administrator for a term that exceeds two years; and 4) that a school district clerk
submit a statement of the school district's indebtedness to the secretary of state,
upon request.
This bill allows a school board to contract with one or more school boards to
satisfy the school board's obligations to provide a variety of services and programs,
including providing instruction on lifesaving skills, providing emergency nursing
services and guidance and counseling services, establishing a bilingual-bicultural
education program, establishing a technical preparation program in each high
school in the school district, ensuring access to programs for gifted and talented
pupils, designating a school attendance officer for the school district, and employing
a certified reading specialist.
This bill eliminates the school district revenue limit adjustment for projects to
implement energy efficiency measures or to purchase energy efficiency products, but
permits a school district that adopted a resolution to initiate an energy efficiency
project before the effective date of the bill to increase the school district revenue limit
by the amount spent on the energy efficiency project in a school year for the
remainder of the term of the bond, note, or trust fund loan.
This bill requires DWD to award a grant to a school district that partners with
either the UW System or the flexible option program in the UW Extension to design
and implement a teacher development program. The teacher development program
must be designed to prepare school district employees who are not teachers to obtain
a teaching permit or initial teaching license.
This bill eliminates the requirement that an individual who currently holds a
valid and current initial teaching license, a professional teaching license, a master
educator license, or an administrator license, issued by DPI, renew that license. In
addition, the bill eliminates renewal requirements for licenses issued after the
effective date of the bill. The bill makes no changes to the substantive requirements
for initial licensure or to the conditions for revocation of these licenses. However, the
bill does transfer responsibility for periodically conducting background checks on
individuals who hold a license from DPI to the school board in which the individual
is employed.
This bill allows a faculty member in the UW System, the TCS, or any private,
nonprofit member of the Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and
Universities to teach at a public high school without a license to teach issued by DPI
if the faculty member is in good standing and possesses a bachelor's degree.
For a license to teach based on reciprocity and for an administrator's license
based on reciprocity, this bill eliminates the requirement that an applicant must
have received an offer to teach or to be an administrator in a school located in this
state in order to qualify for the license.
This bill permits a school district to provide compensation to a student teacher
for time spent in a classroom that involves direct interaction with pupils.
This bill provides additional per pupil aid of $188 in the 2017-18 school year
and $380 in the 2018-19 school year and in each school year thereafter to a school
district that certifies all of the following:
1. In the 2017-18 and 2018-19 school years, school district employees will be
required to pay at least 12 percent of health care coverage costs.
2. The school district will distribute the additional per pupil aid to a school in
the school district in an amount equal to the number of pupils enrolled in the school.
In addition, this bill requires DPI to increase the additional per pupil aid by $12
in the 2017-18 school year and by $24 in the 2018-19 school year if the Group
Insurance Board executes a contract to provide self-insured group health plans to
state employees for the 2018 and 2019 calendar years.
This bill makes certain additional school districts eligible for sparsity aid.
Under current law, a school district is eligible for sparsity aid in the amount of $300
per pupil if the school district's membership in the previous school year does not
exceed 745 pupils and if the membership divided by the school district's area in
square miles is less than ten. The bill increases the per pupil payment to $400. Also
under this bill, a school district with the same density of pupils per square miles and
with a membership in the previous school year of more than 745 students but no more
than 1,000 students is eligible for sparsity aid in the amount of $100 per pupil.
This bill increases the reimbursement rate to school districts and independent
charter school operators for transporting a pupil who lives more than 12 miles from
the school the pupil attends from $300 per school year to $365 per school year; and
increases the reimbursement rate to school districts for transportation to and from
summer classes from $4 to $10 for a pupil who lives at least two miles but not more
than five miles from the school the pupil attends and from $6 to $20 for a pupil who
lives more than five miles from the school the pupil attends. The bill also eliminates
the requirement that DPI reduce the amount of state aid a charter school operator
receives for transporting a pupil if the pupil is transported for less than a full school
year because the pupil is not enrolled in the school district or independent charter
school for the entire school year.
As part of the Technology for Educational Achievement program, known as
TEACH, DOA awards information technology block grants for improving
information technology infrastructure to school districts that have 13 pupils per
square mile or less. Under current law, the information technology block grant
program ends on July 1, 2017. This bill continues the information technology block
grant program until July 1, 2019, and expands the permitted uses of grants under
the program to include providing mobile hotspots on buses and purchasing mobile
hotspots for individuals to borrow from schools. In addition, the eligibility for these
grants in the 2017-18 school year is expanded to include school districts that have
up to 26 pupils per square mile.
This bill requires DPI to develop, implement, and administer a program to
award grants to school districts and independent charter schools for the purpose of
collaborating with community mental health providers to provide mental health
services to pupils.
This bill requires DPI to provide trainings on evidence-based strategies related
to addressing mental issues in schools to school district personnel and independent
charter school personnel. Under the bill, these trainings must include at least the
following evidence-based strategies: screening, brief intervention, and referral to
treatment, known as SBIRT; trauma sensitive schools; and youth mental health first
aid.
This bill requires DPI to make payments to school districts and independent
charter schools that increased the amount the school district or independent charter
school spent to employ, hire, or retain social workers over the amount spent by the
school district or independent charter school to employ, hire, or retain social workers
in the immediately preceding school year.
This bill creates a grant program for public schools, including independent
charter schools, and a private school participating in the Milwaukee Parental Choice
Program that are located within the geographic boundaries of a first class city school
district (currently, only the school district operating in the city of Milwaukee,
Milwaukee Public Schools). Under the grant program, DPI provides awards to
schools that were placed in a performance category of “significantly exceeds
expectations" or “exceeds expectations" on the most recent accountability report and
to schools that improved their score on the most recent accountability report by at
least three points over the previous accountability report. In each school year, the
bill prohibits DPI from making awards under the program until DOA approves
award amounts calculated under the grant program. Finally, the bill requires a first
class city school board to distribute any funds it receives under this grant program
to the school administrator of the school that earned the award.
This bill requires the MPS school board to develop and implement a grant
program to award grants to public schools, except independent charter schools,
located in Milwaukee for the purpose of developing, redesigning, or implementing a
summer school program. Additionally, the bill requires DPI to annually distribute
funding to the MPS board for this purpose.
This bill expands the entities to which DPI must award grants for the purpose
of providing services and activities to gifted and talented pupils to include all school
districts. Under current law, DPI is required to provide these grants to nonprofit
organizations, cooperative educational service agencies, institutions in the UW
System, and a school district operating in a first class city.
This bill creates a program in DPI to award grants to a nonprofit organization
to provide training and an online bullying prevention curriculum to pupils in grades
kindergarten to 8.
This bill explicitly authorizes DPI to request that DOA reimburse charter
schools, including independent charter schools, charter schools under contract with
the director of the Office of Educational Opportunity, and noninstrumentality
charter schools, for certain costs incurred in connection with a special education
program and the provision of special education and related services by the charter
school. Current law allows DPI to reimburse school districts, cooperative
educational service agencies, and county children with disabilities education boards
for the same services under the same conditions.
