One FTE for approximately 40 hours.
Natural Resources
Subject
Chapter
NR 10 pertaining to seasons and daily bag limits for migratory game bird hunting.
Policy analysis
Attached for your review is the department's request to begin the rules process for the 2004 migratory bird hunting season. As you know, we process both an emergency and permanent rule order simultaneously. I would like to bring the initial order to the May Natural Resources Board meeting for approval to go to public hearings. The hearings will be held in early August when my staff has returned from the Mississippi Flyway Council meetings and have received the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service season framework proposals.
Statutory authority
Staff time required
Approximately 120 hours will be needed by the Department to develop the rule prior to and following the hearings.
Summary and comparison with existing or proposed federal regulations:
Under international treaty and Federal law, migratory game bird seasons are closed unless opened annually via the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) regulations process. In order to comply with the mandated Federal system, we must adopt all state regulations by emergency order at the August NRB meeting and follow the emergency rule with a permanent rule order. All seasons, bag limits and regulations included in this rule are established within the parameters recommended by the Mississippi Flyway Council and established by the FWS under
50 CFR 20.
Natural Resources
Subject
Policy analysis
The issues needing to be addressed are routine and technical within the Managed Forest Law (MFL) program.
The department is required to assess the value of cut wood products based on the current stumpage value schedule. Current stumpage values are determined each year by surveying industry, private forestry consultants and DNR field staff on the prices obtained the previous year for wood products by species, product type, and zone. These values are recalculated annually using a weighted three-year average and published in s.
NR 46.30. The stumpage value charts are used to determine severance and yield tax for participants in the Forest Tax Law programs. It is important to adjust these values annually so that landowners are not paying too much in yield tax or too little.
NR 46.18 (1) (a) relates to a very specific component of the program dealing with the scale of property maps that must be submitted with the landowner's management plan for entry into the MFL. Currently only a scale of 8 inches to the mile is allowed. This scale is not the best for fitting all property sizes and shapes unto a mapped page. There are new map preparing programs that can produce a superior product but with different scales. The DNR would like to entertain suggestions from the public on how this requirement could be modified while still meeting the recording requirements by the Registers of Deeds.
Summary and comparison of applicable federal regulations
There are no known federal rules which apply to stumpage rates or map scales.
Statutory authority
Staff time required
Approximately 31 hours will be needed by the department.
Veterans Affairs
Subject
Objective of the rule. The Department seeks to amend the rules related to the Tuition and Fee Reimbursement Grant and the Part Time Study Grant programs to replicate, to the extent possible, the participation requirements of the National Guard Tuition Grant program.
Policy analysis
As a result of the enactment of
2003 Wis. Act 83, Guard members who have appropriate federal active duty service are now eligible for the Tuition and Fee Reimbursement Grant program. They continue to be eligible for the National Guard Tuition Grant program. Veterans eligible for both programs may use only one of the programs in the same semester. The Department believes that making the participation requirements similar for these programs, as well as the Part time Study Grant program, to the extent permissible under the relevant statutes, will provide a more equitable basis to determine whether an applicant is eligible for any of the grants.
Statutory authority
Staff time required
Approximately 5 hours of Department of Veterans Affairs staff time will be needed to promulgate the rules.
Summary and preliminary comparison of any existing or proposed federal regulation that is intended to address the activities to be regulated by the rule.
The educational programs are entirely administered under the authority of state law. There is no existing or proposed federal regulation that has any bearing upon the proposed rule.
Veterans Affairs
Subject
Objective of the rule. The creation of ch.
VA 18 would implement the legislature's authorization to administer a stipend program for the training and recruitment of registered nurses at the Wisconsin Veterans Homes at King and Union Grove. The legislature authorized the program in the
2003 Wis. Act 33. The statute creating the program, s.
45.365 (7), authorized the department to “promulgate administrative rules related to the program, including the application process, eligibility criteria, stipend amount, repayment provisions, and other provisions that the department determines are necessary to administer the program." The objective is to create a stipend program that fulfills the legislature's directive while identifying the department's greatest need relating to recruitment and continued employment.
Policy analysis
The need for qualified registered nurses at the Homes is significant. In a position paper dated May 7, 2003, prepared by the Legislative Reference Bureau (LRB) for the Joint Committee on Finance, the LRB identified significant vacancy rates, turnover rates, and projected retirement rates for registered nurses at the Veterans Home at King (Home). The vacancy rate for registered nurse at the Home at the end of 2001-02 was 30%. Although no specific turnover rates were identified, the LRB noted that the Home indicated that turnover rates were significantly higher with newer employees. Finally, the LRB noted that approximately half of the current nurse positions at the Home are 50 years of age or older.
The data supports an aggressive registered nurse recruitment and retention program at the Home. A stipend program has been used successfully by other employers and will provide the Home with a competitive tool to recruit and retain registered nurses.
Statutory authority
Staff time required
Approximately 40 hours of Department of Veterans Affairs staff time will be needed to promulgate the rules.
Summary and preliminary comparison of any existing or proposed federal regulation that is intended to address the activities to be regulated by the rule.
The stipend program is entirely administered under the authority of state law. There is no existing or proposed federal regulation that has any bearing upon the proposed rule.
Workforce Development
Subject
Policy analysis
The proposed rule will include the following issues related to migrant labor camps:
• Provide that newly-constructed migrant housing must be at least 500 feet from livestock and existing migrant housing must be at least 200 feet from livestock. Federal law requires migrant housing to be at least 500 feet from livestock. Current DWD informal policy requires housing to be at least 200 feet from livestock.
• Define what constitutes recruitment for the purpose of the worker agreement requirement
• Require that the ending date of a work agreement be specific
• Clarify that a worker must come to Wisconsin for employment covered by the migrant labor laws to be considered a migrant worker
• Define what is considered a single family for the purpose of determining who may live in single-family housing
• Clarify that each worker must receive an individual wage statement showing wages earned and any other amounts deducted
• Describe where smoke detectors in migrant housing units must be located
• Replace obsolete ILHR building code references with current Commerce building code references
• Repeal obsolete compliance dates in the code
Statutory authority
Staff time required
75 hours.
Summary and preliminary comparison of any existing or proposed federal regulation that is intended to address the activities to be regulated by the rule.
Federal regulations do not address issues in the proposed rule other than the distance of migrant housing from livestock.
