Wednesday, October 23, 2002
Ninety-Fifth Regular Session
The Chief Clerk makes the following entries under the above date.
__________________
State of Wisconsin
October 22, 2002
The Honorable, The Senate:
The members of the Senate Democratic Caucus have taken action to remove Senator Chuck Chvala as leader of the caucus and elected Senator Russ Decker and Senator Fred Risser to serve as Co-Leaders of the Majority Caucus of the Senate.
Sincerely,
Robert W. Wirch
Chair
Senate Democratic Caucus
State of Wisconsin
Department of Administration
October 9, 2002
The Honorable, The Senate:
Pursuant to 13.172(2) of the Wisconsin Statutes, the Department of Administration submits to the Wisconsin Legislature the annual report of the Wisconsin public benefits programs.
This report was required by the Wisconsin Legislature as part of
1999 Wisconsin Act 9 (the 1999-2001 Biennial Budget Act).
If you have any questions, please contact John Marx, Administrator, of the Division of Energy. Mr. Marx can be reached at (608) 266-2035.
Sincerely,
George Lightbourn
Secretary
State of Wisconsin
Department of Administration
October 15, 2002
The Honorable, The Legislature:
This report presents statements of fund condition and operations (budgetary basis) of the State of Wisconsin for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2002. This satisfies the requirements of sec. 16.40(3), Wisconsin Statutes. Displayed are major sources of revenues and major categories of expenditures for the General Fund and other funds compared to the prior year.
The General Fund has an undesignated balance of $53.8 million as of the end of the fiscal year. This is $181.3 million lower than the $235.1 million estimate that was projected in the final Chapter
20 fund condition statement. The lower balance was the result of lower than expected tax revenues.
General-purpose revenue taxes were $10.020 billion compared to $10.063 billion in the prior year, a decrease of $43 million or 0.4 percent. This decrease is the result of reductions in income tax rates and other changes to state tax laws made in
1999 Wisconsin Act 9 combined with a general slowdown in the economy. General-purpose revenue expenditures, excluding fund transfers, were $11.259 billion compared to $11.078 billion in the prior year, an increase of $181.0 million or 1.6 percent.
General-purpose revenue spending increases in fiscal year 2002 were largely driven by increases in three areas: School Aids increased by $139.6 million (3.2 percent), Medical Assistance increased by $77.3 million (7.8 percent), and Corrections increased by $14.9 million (1.9 percent) overall.
In fiscal year 2002, the State of Wisconsin continued to devote the major share of state tax collections to assistance to local school districts, municipalities and counties. Local assistance accounted for 60.3 percent of total general purpose revenue spending. Aid payments to individuals and organizations represented 16.8 percent of total general purpose revenue expenditures. The University of Wisconsin accounted for 8.6 percent of total general purpose revenue spending and state operations spending for all other state agencies accounted for 14.3 percent of the total.
The State of Wisconsin expects to publish its comprehensive annual financial report in December of 2002. The report will be prepared under generally accepted accounting principles.
Respectfully submitted,
George Lightbourn
Secretary
William J. Raftery, CPA
State Controller
State of Wisconsin
Ethics Board
October 22, 2002
The Honorable, The Senate:
The following lobbyists have been authorized to act on behalf of the organizations set opposite their names.
For more detailed information about these lobbyists and organizations and a complete list of organizations and people authorized to lobby the 2001 session of the legislature, visit the Ethics Board's web site at
http://ethics.state.wi.us/
Heifetz, Michael Dean Health System Inc
Joyce, Mark WorldCom Inc
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 organizations that employ lobbyists.
Sincerely,
Roth Judd
Director
