• Streamlines environmental permit issuance and implements time limits on permit processing.
• Increases funding for water quality protection efforts by $15 million related to the priority watershed program, new nonpoint source performance standards and the soil and water resources management program.
• Seeks to improve service to the public through automating campground reservations, hunting and fishing license issuance and recreational vehicle registration.
• Enhances recreation and winter tourism opportunities by increasing local snowmobile aids by 57% over the biennium through a new GPR appropriation, a new $10 sticker for non-resident snowmobiles and growth in existing revenue sources.
• Reduces agrichemical licensing fees and surcharges due to a surplus in the agrichemical cleanup fund.
Human Services
• Provides $9.2 million GPR to fund an additional 1,192 Community Options Program (COP) slots over the biennium.
• Provides an increase of $146 million over the biennium to meet the increased needs for child care that will result from the statewide implementation of W-2.
• Provides a 21% increase in the grant payments for Community Service Jobs and Transition placements under W-2 to recognize that people in these two categories have additional barriers to work.
• Provides $34.4 million GPR over the biennium to fund the state assumption of responsibility for the operation of child welfare services in Milwaukee.
• Provides $3.6 million GPR over the biennium to support a women's health initiative, to assure that the particular health needs of women are met.
• Provides for an increase in the cigarette tax of 15 cents per pack. The anticipated revenue from this increase, $82 million over the biennium, will help to fund the health initiatives in the budget.
• Provides $2.0 million GPR over the biennium for grants to school districts and local communities for tobacco education.
• Provides $2.6 million GPR over the biennium to increase services to the victims of domestic abuse.
• Adds dental sealants for children as a new Medical Assistance benefit. By the end of the biennium the costs of this new benefit will be outweighed by the savings in other dental costs for children.
• Provides $15.7 million GPR in FY99 to institute the new Badgercare health insurance program for children and their parents. This program will cost $67.1 million all funds annually and will make health insurance available for all low-income children and their parents who are not covered by Medical Assistance.
• Provides $3.0 million GPR over the biennium in increases for benefit specialists and elder abuse services, two programs of importance to senior citizens.
Justice
• Provides the resources necessary to enforce Wisconsin's sex predator law to ensure continued public safety.
• Provides additional state funding and staff for critical drug enforcement programs in the Department of Justice.
• Increases funding for programs that assist victims of crime.
• Provides additional support to local law enforcement by adding state crime lab resources, including full funding of the state's DNA analysis program and funding for critical surveillance equipment and additional crime lab analysts.
• Provides funding for 2,157 new prison beds and 1,830 contract beds to help relieve prison overcrowding.
• Authorizes the Department of Corrections to contract with private providers for prison beds in other states.
• Provides capital funding to construct a 600-bed probation and parole and AODA facility in Milwaukee.
• Provides capital funding to construct another 1,000 prison beds at a site or sites to be determined in the future.
• Provides funding for the VINE System (Victim Information and Notification Everyday) to inform victims of offender location, parole eligibility date, mandatory release date and offender's date of release from prison.
• Increases from three to six the number of private business partnerships authorized to provide prison employment opportunities in Wisconsin prisons.
• Increases funding for youth aids by providing an additional $8.5 million to counties.
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• Doubles funding for youth diversion programs designed to divert youth from gang activities in Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha and Brown Counties and in the City of Racine.
• Provides the resources for the next phase in developing Wisconsin's integrated justice information system to enhance the information sharing capabilities of local law enforcement, the courts, the public defender, district attorneys and the correctional system. The budget also provides nearly $7 million to further improve the information technology infrastructure of the public defender and the district attorneys.
• Ensures the continued success and stability of the Circuit Court Automation Program (CCAP) by providing 23 positions and additional funding to the courts to continue to provide circuit courts with information technology targeted at improving the efficiency of court operations throughout the state.
State Government Operations and Efficiency
• Eliminates nearly 50 attached boards, councils and commissions that the Lieutenant Governor's study recommended be sunset.
• Funds all state obligations related to implementation of the Special Investment Performance Dividend court order and also funds benefit supplements to ensure there will be no discontinuity in the receipt of existing pension benefits by pre-1974 retirees.
• Provides improvements in programs and benefits for Wisconsin's veterans, including extending eligibility to include peacetime veterans, creating a new personal loan program which increases maximum loan limits and expanding the purposes for which loans can be made, restructuring and strengthening the primary home loan and home improvement programs, and expanding the tuition fee reimbursement program.
• Provides funds to reimburse 100% of costs in the National Guard Tuition Grant Program.
• Provides funds for the State Elections Board to convert and implement a system for electronically reporting and accessing election campaign finances, as recommended by a Governor's blue ribbon commission on campaign reform.
• Creates a small section within the Department of Administration to conduct performance audits and increase financial auditing of state agencies.
The budget I am signing today covers the last full biennium of the twentieth century. It builds on our past successes and points us toward a promising future.
Respectfully submitted,
TOMMY G. THOMPSON
Governor
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VETO MESSAGE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A. EDUCATION AND TRAINING
arts BOARD
1. Percent-for-Art Program
HIGHER EDUCATIONAL AIDS BOARD
2. Academic Excellence Scholarship Program
public instruction
3. Maximum Allowable Revenue Increase
4. Student Achievement Guarantee in Education
5. Revenue Limits--School Districts with Declining Enrollments
6. Date Requirement for Full-Time and Part-Time Open Enrollment Policies
7. Wisconsin Educational Opportunity Program
State historical society
8. Nonresident Library Fee
Technology for Educational Achievement in wisconsin board (Teach)
9. TEACH Membership
10. Emergency Rulemaking
11. Technology Grants for Public Libraries
12. Common School Fund Income Block Grants
university of wisconsin system
13. Sunset of Tuition Revenue Expenditure Authority
14. Executive Salaries
15. Auxiliary Enterprises
16. Study of University of Wisconsin Faculty Salaries
17. Institute for Excellence in Urban Education
18. Advising Initiative
19. University of Wisconsin-Extension
20. University of Wisconsin Medical School
Wisconsin Technical college system
21. Incentive Grants Appropriation
22. Youth Options--Attendance at Technical Colleges
23. Youth Options--Payment Negotiation
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B. ENVIRONMENTAL AND COMMERCIAL RESOURCES
Agriculture, trade and consumer protection
1. Stray Voltage
2. Agrichemical Cleanup Fund Fees
commerce
3. Reimbursement of Financing Fees under PECFA
4. Pedestrian Bridge
5. Wisconsin Development Finance Board Membership and Award Notification
6. Farm Enterprise Grants
7. Downtown Wisconsin Fund Study
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8. Minority Business Development Grants
