One-Hundred and Fifth Regular Session
THURSDAY, February 4, 2021
The Chief Clerk made the following entries under the above date.
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Chief Clerk's Entries
Amendments Offered
hist126856Senate Amendment 1 to Senate Bill 60 offered by Senator Kooyenga. _____________
Introduction, First Reading, and Reference of Proposals
Read first time and referred:
Relating to: community health center grants and making an appropriation.
By Senators Testin, Ballweg, Carpenter, Petrowski, Ringhand, Roys, L. Taylor and Wirch; cosponsored by Representatives Novak, Magnafici, Cabrera, Dittrich, Duchow, Kerkman, Kitchens, Moses, Mursau, Ortiz-Velez, Rozar, Shankland, Sinicki, Snyder, Subeck, Tittl and Tusler.
Relating to: pharmacy technicians and pharmacy students administering vaccines.
By Senator Kooyenga; cosponsored by Representatives Sanfelippo, Cabral-Guevara, Dittrich, Duchow, Moses, Murphy and Rozar.
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Report of Committees
The committee on Financial Institutions and Revenue reported and recommended:
Senate Bill 1
Relating to: modifications to the tax treatment of tax-option corporations that elect to pay tax at the entity level.
Ayes: 5 - Senators Kooyenga, Feyen, Stafsholt, Ringhand and Agard.
Noes: 0 - None.
Senate Bill 2
Relating to: various changes to the laws administered and enforced by the Department of Revenue.
Ayes: 5 - Senators Kooyenga, Feyen, Stafsholt, Ringhand and Agard.
Noes: 0 - None.
Ayes: 3 - Senators Kooyenga, Feyen and Stafsholt.
Noes: 2 - Senators Ringhand and Agard.
Ayes: 3 - Senators Kooyenga, Feyen and Stafsholt.
Noes: 2 - Senators Ringhand and Agard.
Senate Bill 43
Relating to: exempting military income received by active duty members of the U.S. armed forces and sunsetting the armed forces member tax credit.
Ayes: 5 - Senators Kooyenga, Feyen, Stafsholt, Ringhand and Agard.
Noes: 0 - None.
Senate Bill 58
Relating to: individual income tax brackets and rates.
Ayes: 5 - Senators Kooyenga, Feyen, Stafsholt, Ringhand and Agard.
Noes: 0 - None.
DALE KOOYENGA
Chairperson
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Petitions and Communications
hist126841Pursuant to Senate Rule 17 (5), Senator Bewley added as a coauthor of Senate Bill 3. hist126805Pursuant to Senate Rule 17 (5), Senator Stafsholt added as a coauthor of Senate Bill 43. hist126796Pursuant to Senate Rule 17 (5), Representative Katsma added as a cosponsor of Senate Bill 58. _____________
State of Wisconsin
Office of the Governor
February 4, 2021
Dear Members of the Wisconsin State Legislature:
I write today to ask for your immediate attention and urgency for modernizing Wisconsin’s unemployment system. More than three weeks ago now following my State of the State address, I called a special session of the Legislature on unemployment insurance modernization. My modernization plan proposes a robust yet reasonable solution through the master lease program—a viable option Republican members suggested—that will ensure we can begin the process of modernizing our unemployment system’s antiquated infrastructure immediately while reducing up-front costs to Wisconsin taxpayers. I call that a win-win.
And yet, my proposal to update our antiquated system to date has been met with the same continued inaction Wisconsinites have seen for years during previous administrations and more than a decades’ worth of state legislators that knew this system was outdated and failed to fix it. And worse yet, it has also become the subject of partisan, political posturing and finger pointing unfitting of the severity of this problem and the urgency with which it must be addressed. To this end, I wanted to bring to your attention an analysis conducted and published yesterday by PolitiFact that found fixing this problem will require legislative support and approval for us to upgrade the system completely, stating, “It’s clear funds will need to be set aside across multiple years. And the way to approve such ongoing funding is through the budget—which must pass the Legislature.” In light of this, I am hopeful these findings will inspire immediate and bipartisan legislative action that this problem deserves.
Many of you, after having served in the Legislature for some time, are well aware our unemployment insurance system is not new, nor are its problems. After these issues with our unemployment system were raised during the Great Recession and now again during COVID-19, it would be callous and irresponsible for any elected official to sit around and wait for the next economic crisis while taking no action to remedy a predictable outcome.
