Passage and without recommendation.
Ayes, 3 - Senators
Plache, Moore and Decker.
Noes, 3 - Senators
Zien, Darling and Farrow.
Kimberly Plache
Chairperson
__________________
State of Wisconsin
Office of the Secretary of State
To the Honorable, the Senate:
Sincerely,
Douglas La follette
Secretary of State
State of Wisconsin
Legislative Audit Bureau
February 2, 1998
The Honorable, The Legislature:
We have completed an evaluation of the Department of Health and Family Services' regulation of Wisconsin nursing homes and a review of the Board on Aging and Long Term Care's role in monitoring nursing homes, as directed by the Joint Legislative Audit Committee. Approximately 100 surveyors in five regional offices of the Department regularly inspect the state's 430 nursing homes. Based on 2,328 visits to nursing homes in fiscal years 1995-96 and 1996-97, the Department issued 5,642 federal citations that led to a variety of enforcement actions including $410,075 in penalties, and 751 state citations resulting in $334,480 in forfeitures.
Federal regulations appear to provide an adequate foundation for the Department's regulatory efforts, although enforcement of these regulations appears to have been affected by a period of transition following their implementation in July 1995. State statutes and rules, in contrast, are outdated. Although work on new state rules began in 1996, new rules are not expected to be completed until 1999. Because the Department's surveyors exhibit different patterns of citing practices among the regions within the state, we include a recommendation that the Department take action to improve consistency among its surveyors. In addition, the Legislature could consider statutory amendments to increase penalties for nursing homes that have been unresponsive to regulatory efforts and to clarify the circumstances in which these nursing homes should be penalized.
The Board's ombudsmen help monitor nursing home conditions and assist residents, their families, and nursing home staff in the resolution of problems and concerns. The amount of work that ombudsmen can do with regard to monitoring the work of the Department or responding to consumers' concerns is limited by their number, which is small in comparison to programs in other states even after the recent increase from 8 to 11 positions. Finally, more could be done by both the Department and the Board to enable the public to contribute more effectively to the provision of quality care.
We appreciate the courtesy and cooperation extended to us by staff in the Department of Health and Family Services and the Board on Aging and Long Term Care. Responses from the two agencies are included as Appendices I and II, respectively.
Sincerely,
Dale Cattanach
State Auditor
State of Wisconsin
Investment Board
January 30, 1998
The Honorable, The Legislature:
Section
25.17(14r) of the Statutes requires that the State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB) submit a report to the Joint Committee on Audit, Joint Committee on Finance, and Chief Clerks of each House summarizing any change in the Board's investment policies, upon adoption of the change.
On January 7, 1998, the Board approved modifications to the Investment Policy Guidelines for the State Investment Fund (SIF) and the domestic equity, venture capital and leverage buyout portfolios of the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) Trust Funds. The changes are indicated on the attached copy of the guidelines. Additions to the previous guidelines are shaded and deletions are the stricken material.
State Investment Fund—Wisconsin Certificate of Deposit Program
Under the Wisconsin Certificate of Deposit Program, the SIF purchases up to $300 million in CDs from Wisconsin financial institutions. The program was expanded last year to encourage greater participation.
S442
The guidelines approved last year limited the amount of CDs we purchase from branches of bank holding companies to no more than $30 million. The new guidelines permit the $30 million limit to be exceeded if the total amount outstanding is less than $300 million. This will help the program reach its intended level while ensuring that holding companies do not dominate the program when other institutions are interested in participating.
The second change removes limits on the amounts of CDs that we may purchase at particular maturity levels. The new guidelines allow the portfolio manager to determine the appropriate maturity profile for the portfolio, as is the case for other investments. Some ambiguity in the old guidelines is also eliminated as a result.
Domestic Equities
Approximately $21.9 billion of WRS assets are managed in domestic stock portfolios. Close to $9.2 billion, or 42%, is actively managed internally. Previous guidelines limited SWIB's ownership of a company's stock to 10% of the outstanding shares. Until recently, ownership of more than 10% required the filing of added information with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and would have made the shareholder subject to other restrictive trading requirements. The SEC has raised the limit from 10% to 20%. As a result, our guidelines were modified to similarly increase the limit to 20%.
SWIB's small-company stock portfolio is likely to be the primary user of the expanded authority. However, we expect that ownership of more than 10% of a company's stock will only occur in a limited number of cases. Our guidelines continue to limit our overall equity exposure to any one company to no more than 5% of market value of publicly traded stocks owned by the Fixed and Variable Retirement Funds. The assets of the trust funds continue to be well diversified.
The domestic equity guidelines were also modified to provide for a new portfolio that will focus on companies between $750 million and $3.0 billion in market capitalization. It will be managed internally by current staff. This new "target" portfolio will bridge between our small- and mid-size company portfolios. We foresee opportunities in this area of the market. The portfolio is subject to the same guidelines presently in effect for SWIB's other domestic equity portfolios.
Venture Capital and Leveraged Buy-Out Portfolios
SWIB invests assets of the Fixed Retirement Fund in leveraged buy-out (LBO) funds that seek superior returns through closely held ownership and leverage. Typically, we invest in limited partnership interests, although the corporate form of ownership may also be used. The LBO portfolio is valued at $896 million.
We invest assets of the Fixed and Variable Funds in venture capital funds. These entities, in turn, invest in various stages of a new company's development, generally prior to a public offering of the company's stock. Our venture capital portfolio is valued at $95 million.
The guideline change increases the amount that may be invested in international funds from 10% to 20% of the value of the LBO and venture capital portfolios. "International funds" include any fund with a majority of its investment in non-U.S. instruments. As has been the policy for these portfolios, no such investments may be made in emerging markets. The new authority enables the portfolio manager to take advantage of an expanding international private placement market. We continue to see extensive deal-flow in these international funds and believe that this increased authority will help the fund to remain active in the attractive (developed) international private equity arena.
Please contact me if you have any questions about this report.
Sincerely,
Patricia Lipton
Executive Director
State of Wisconsin
Department of Employment Relations
January 1998
The Honorable, The Senate:
The Written Hiring Reasons Report for Wisconsin State Government is enclosed. The report, covering the periods July 1, 1995, through June 30, 1996 and July 1, 1996, through June 30, 1997, is required under ss.
230.25 (1p) and
230.27 (2k), Wis. Stats., created by
1991 Wisconsin Act 101. Act 101 made several changes in Wisconsin civil service law regarding veterans preference and affirmative action. The law requires "written hiring reasons" for certain hiring transactions and requires the Department of Employment Relations to summarize the hiring reasons and prepare an annual report.
Information for this report came from summary information provided by each agency. Your efforts and cooperation in compiling the summary reports is appreciated. The report includes a summary and information for each state agency and the UW System unit.
If you have any questions, please contact Claire Dehnert, Division of Affirmative Action, at (608) 267-1005.
Sincerely,
Jon E. Litscher
Secretary
State of Wisconsin
Ethics Board
January 27, 1998
At the direction of s.
13.685(7),
Wisconsin Statutes, I am furnishing you with the names of organizations recently registered with the Ethics Board that employ one or more individuals to affect state legislation or administrative rules, and notifying you of changes in the Ethics Board's records of licensed lobbyists and their employers. For each recently registered organization I have included the organization's description of the general area of legislative or administrative action that it attempts to influence and the name of each licensed lobbyist that the organization has authorized to act on its behalf.
Organization's authorization of additional lobbyists:
The following organizations previously registered with the Ethics Board have authorized to act on their behalf these additional licensed lobbyists:
Farm Bureau Federation, Wisconsin
Gentile, Sabrina
Skipper Bud's
Boyce, Catherine
Liebe, Thomas
Surgery Center Assn Wisconsin
Leitch, Laura J
Termination of lobbying authorizations:
The following individuals are no longer authorized to lobby on behalf of the organizations listed below, as of the dates indicated.
Agri-Service Assn, Wisconsin
Freitag, John W 1/22/98
Also available from the Wisconsin Ethics Board are reports identifying the amount and value of time state agencies have spent to affect legislative action and reports of expenditures for lobbying activities filed by the organizations that employ lobbyists.
To the Honorable the Senate:
Sincerely,
R. Roth Judd
Executive Director
Ethics Board
February 3, 1998
At the direction of s.
13.685(7),
Wisconsin Statutes, I am furnishing you with the names of organizations recently registered with the Ethics Board that employ one or more individuals to affect state legislation or administrative rules, and notifying you of changes in the Ethics Board's records of licensed lobbyists and their employers. For each recently registered organization I have included the organization's description of the general area of legislative or administrative action that it attempts to influence and the name of each licensed lobbyist that the organization has authorized to act on its behalf.
Organizations recently registered:
Below are the names of organizations recently registered with the Ethics Board as employing one or more individuals to affect state legislation or administrative rules.
People's Lottery Foundation Inc
Subject(s): None applicable.
Jablonski, Ann
Radtke, Randall
Tries, John
Organization's authorization of additional lobbyists:
The following organizations previously registered with the Ethics Board have authorized to act on their behalf these additional licensed lobbyists:
Crandon Mining Co
