__________________
The committee on Agriculture reports and recommends:
Assembly Bill 314
Relating to: implied warranties concerning disease status of animals and granting rule-making authority.
Passage:
Ayes: 13 - Representatives Ott, Petrowski, Hahn, Kestell, Spillner, Suder, Ainsworth, Sykora, Lassa, Plouff, Reynolds, Steinbrink and Waukau.
Noes: 0.
To committee on Rules.
Alvin Ott
Chairperson
Committee on Agriculture
__________________
By Donald J. Schneider, Senate Chief Clerk.
Mr. Speaker:
I am directed to inform you that the Senate has
Adopted and asks concurrence in:
Senate Joint Resolution
15
Passed and asks concurrence in:
Senate Bill 3
Senate Bill 38
Senate Bill 49
Senate Bill 62
Senate Bill 92
__________________
Senate Joint Resolution
15
Relating to: the life and public service of Laurie Carlson.
A207
By
Senators
Erpenbach, Chvala, Breske, Burke, Darling, George, Grobschmidt, Jauch, Moen, Plache, Risser, Roessler, Schultz and Shibilski; cosponsored by Representatives Travis, Young, Spillner, Sherman, Ryba, Pocan, Plouff, Riley, Miller, Krug, Huber, Hubler, Gronemus, Boyle, Bock and Black.
To committee on Rules.
Senate Bill
3
Relating to: payment of health insurance premiums for University of Wisconsin System faculty and certain administrative staff.
By
Senators
Grobschmidt, Roessler, Erpenbach, Huelsman, Baumgart, Burke, Rude, Risser, Plache, Clausing, Moen, Darling, Panzer and Schultz; cosponsored by Representatives Albers, Kreibich, Schneider, Bock, Brandemuehl, J. Lehman, Pocan, Turner, Boyle, Black, Plale, Meyer, Miller, Colon, Goetsch, Carpenter, Kreuser, Sykora and Powers.
To committee on Rules.
Senate Bill
38
Relating to: eligibility for the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority's property tax deferral loan program.
By
Senators
Risser, Moen, Erpenbach and Clausing; cosponsored by Representatives Musser, Black, La Fave, Cullen, Miller, Hasenohrl, Ott and Krug.
To committee on Housing.
Senate Bill
49
Relating to: the individual income tax filing threshold for certain married persons.
By
Senators
Breske, Baumgart, Darling, Drzewiecki, A. Lasee, Roessler and Farrow; cosponsored by Representatives Kaufert, Ryba, Skindrud, Turner, Gronemus, Bock, Pettis, F. Lasee, Sykora, Ziegelbauer, Hasenohrl, Wasserman, Morris-Tatum, Plale, Williams, Lassa, Reynolds, Staskunas, Petrowski, Gunderson and Huber.
To committee on Ways and Means.
Senate Bill
62
Relating to: sharing public library system resources, preparing a written plan for library technology and the sharing of resources and eliminating redundant provisions relating to libraries.
By
Senators
Grobschmidt, Darling, Baumgart, Roessler, Jauch, Risser, Schultz, Wirch, Breske and Erpenbach; cosponsored by Representatives Olsen, J. Lehman, Spillner, La Fave, Albers, Ryba, Goetsch, Plale, M. Lehman, Miller, Ladwig, Kreuser, Gunderson, Hebl, Boyle, Black, Hasenohrl, Plouff and Huber, by request of the Department of Public Instruction, Wisconsin Library Association, Council on Library and Network Development, The System and Resource Library Administrators Association of Wisconsin.
To committee on Education.
Senate Bill
92
Relating to: proceeds from the sale of forest products at Fort McCoy and making an appropriation.
By
Senators
Moen and Rude; cosponsored by Representatives Musser and Huebsch.
To committee on Rules.
__________________
Reference Bureau Corrections
Assembly Bill 344
1. Page 1, line 3: delete "payments" and substitute "payment".
2. Page 5, line 18: delete "20.455" and substitute "20.435".
Note: This change reflects the cross-reference shown in the LRB drafting record for 1999 Assembly Bill 344.
__________________
Referral of Agency Reports
State of Wisconsin
Office of the Commissioner of Insurance
Madison
May 6, 1999
To the Honorable, the Legislature:
In accordance with s.
601.427(9), Wis. Stat., I am pleased to submit this report to the Wisconsin Legislature. This report is to evaluate the impact that
1995 Wisconsin Act 10 has had on the following:
(a) The number of health care providers practicing in Wisconsin.
(b) The fees that health care providers pay under s.
655.27(3), Wis. Stat.
(c) The premiums that health care providers pay for health care liability insurance.
The evaluation performed included the collection and analysis of statistics regarding the number of health care providers and premiums charged for health care liability insurance. Analysis of these statistics determined the only discernable effect on these areas has been an estimated $60.8 million dollars in reductions of fees collected under s.
655.27(3), Wis. Stat. over the last five years. However, it was further noted that loss experience to date is too immature to validate the reduction.
The attached report provides information regarding the background of Act 10, the statistics collected and the analysis performed.
Sincerely,
Connie L. O'Connell
Commissioner
Referred to committee on Health.
__________________
State of Wisconsin
Legislative Audit Bureau
Madison
May 19, 1999
To the Honorable, the Legislature:
During the course of our annual audit of the State of Wisconsin's financial statements, we identified four fiscal control and budgetary issues for your attention. The first concerns a statutory requirement to hold funds in reserve for six years to cover cancelled state checks that have not been cashed. If the Legislature were to amend this requirement, the State could both maintain a prudent level of reserves for cancelled checks and, on a one-time basis, lapse $3.6 million from the cancelled drafts reserve to the General Fund for appropriation.
The second issue concerns accounting for more than $1.5 million in federal reimbursements for lost interest earnings related to the administration of federal grants. We had expected these funds to be accounted for as general purpose revenue in the General Fund. However, the Department of Administration accounted for them in a federal program revenue appropriation. The Legislature could direct the Department of Administration to lapse this $1.5 million, as well as all future federal interest reimbursements, to the General Fund for general appropriation.
The third issue relates to a $500,000 trust fund established by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) under a court-ordered plea agreement with Menard, Inc., which DNR has not reported to the Joint Committee on Finance or included in its fiscal year 1999-2001 budget request. Under the plea agreement, DNR is to use the trust fund to support "clean sweep" grants that allow municipalities to establish, operate, or maintain household hazardous waste disposal programs; the State may not use the trust fund to reduce its current funding levels for clean sweep grants; and any money remaining in the trust fund after five years is to be transferred to the Common School Fund, which supports low-interest loans both to schools and to other governments. During budget deliberations, the Legislature could authorize DNR to use the trust fund to expand the clean sweep program. Alternatively, the Legislature could direct DNR not to spend trust fund assets, but instead to allow the trust fund to accumulate interest until the end of calendar year 2002, when the balance may be transferred to the Common School Fund.
Our final issue relates to accounting for the State's building program. We note that $446,000 has accumulated in the Bond Security and Redemption Fund, apparently as a result of errors in accounting for debt service payments. The Legislature may wish to consider directing the Department of Administration to transfer these funds to the General Fund and other funds that originally made the debt service payments.
We also followed up on the status of $1.9 million in undistributed interest earnings in the Capital Improvement Fund, which we described to the Audit Committee in January 1998. The Building Commission selected one of the options we proposed and, in February 1999, transferred the funds-which then exceeded $2.1 million- to the State Building Trust Fund.
We hope that you find this information useful. If you have any questions or comments, please contact me.
Sincerely,
Janice Mueller
State Auditor
__________________
Representative Grothman moved that the Assembly stand adjourned until 10:00 A.M. on Thursday, May 27.
The question was: Shall the Assembly stand adjourned?
