Emergency rules now in effect
Under s. 227.24, Stats., state agencies may promulgate rules without complying with the usual rule-making procedures. Using this special procedure to issue emergency rules, an agency must find that either the preservation of the public peace, health, safety or welfare necessitates its action in bypassing normal rule-making procedures.
Emergency rules are published in the official state newspaper, which is currently the Wisconsin State Journal. Emergency rules are in effect for 150 days and can be extended up to an additional 120 days with no single extension to exceed 60 days.
Occasionally the Legislature grants emergency rule authority to an agency with a longer effective period than 150 days or allows an agency to adopt an emergency rule without requiring a finding of emergency.
Extension of the effective period of an emergency rule is granted at the discretion of the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules under s. 227.24 (2), Stats.
Notice of all emergency rules which are in effect must be printed in the Wisconsin Administrative Register. This notice will contain a brief description of the emergency rule, the agency finding of emergency or a statement of exemption from a finding of emergency, date of publication, the effective and expiration dates, any extension of the effective period of the emergency rule and information regarding public hearings on the emergency rule.
Copies of emergency rule orders can be obtained from the promulgating agency. The text of current emergency rules can be viewed at www.legis.state.wi.us/rsb/code.
Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection
Rules adopted creating
ss. ATCP 99.13, 99.25, 100.13 and 101.25, relating to the partial refund of certain agricultural producer security assessments required of grain dealers, grain warehouse keepers, milk contractors and vegetable contractors.
Finding of emergency
(1) The Wisconsin department of agriculture, trade and consumer protection currently administers an agricultural producer security program under ch.
126, Stats. (“producer security law"). This program is designed to protect agricultural producers from catastrophic financial defaults by contractors who procure agricultural commodities from producers.
(2) Under the producer security law, contractors pay annual assessments to an agricultural producer security fund (“the fund"). If a contractor defaults in payments to producers, the department may compensate producers from the fund. A contractor's annual fund assessment is based, in large part, on the contractor's annual financial statement. The producer security law spells out a formula for calculating assessments. However, the department may modify assessments by rule.
(3) The fund assessment formula is designed to require higher assessments of contractors who have weak financial statements (and may thus present greater default risks). But the statutory formula may generate unexpectedly high assessments in some cases, where a contractor's strong financial condition is temporarily affected by financial transactions related to a merger or acquisition. This may cause unfair hardship, and may unfairly penalize some mergers or acquisitions that actually strengthen security for agricultural producers. This may have an unnecessarily adverse impact on contractors, producers and Wisconsin economic development.
(4) The department may adjust assessments by rule, in order to ameliorate unintended results. But the normal rulemaking process will require at least a year to complete. The temporary emergency rule is needed to address this matter in the short term, and to provide relief for contractors already affected.
Publication Date:
January 29, 2004
Effective Date:
January 29, 2004
Expiration Date:
June 27, 2004
Hearing Dates:
April 26 and 27, 2004
[See Notice this Register]
Employment Relations Commission
Finding of emergency
The Employment Relations Commission finds that an emergency exists and that rules are necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, safety or welfare. A statement of the facts constituting the emergency is as follows:
1. The Employment Relations Commission has a statutory responsibility in the private, municipal and state sectors for timely and peaceful resolution of collective bargaining disputes and for serving as an expeditious and impartial labor relations tribunal.
2. Effective July 26, 2003,
2003 Wisconsin Act 33 reduced the Employment Relations Commission's annual budget by $400,000 in General Program Revenue (GPR) and eliminated 4.0 GPR supported positions. These reductions lowered the Employment Relations Commission's annual base GPR funding level and the number of GPR supported positions by more than 16%.
Act 33 also abolished the Personnel Commission and transferred certain of the Personnel Commission's dispute resolution responsibilities to the Employment Relations Commission.
3.
2003 Wisconsin Act 33 increased the Employment Relations Commission's Program Revenue (PR) funding and positions by $237,800 and 2.0 PR positions respectively. The revenue to support these increases will be provided by increasing existing filing fees for certain dispute resolution services.
4. Unless the emergency rule making procedures of s.
227.24, Stats., are utilized by the Employment Relations Commission to provide the increased filing fee revenue needed to support the 2.0 PR positions, the Commission's ability to provide timely and expeditious dispute resolution services will be significantly harmed.
The emergency rules increase existing filing fees for Commission dispute resolution services in amounts necessary to fund 2.0 Program Revenue positions as authorized by
2003 Wisconsin Act 33.
Publication Date:
August 25, 2003
Effective Date:
September 15, 2003
Expiration Date:
February 12, 2004
Hearing Date:
November 20, 2003
Extension Through:
April 30, 2004
Gaming
Rules adopting repealing
s. Game 23.02 (2) of the Wisconsin Administrative Code, relating to the computation of purses.
Finding of emergency
The Wisconsin Department of Administration finds that an emergency exists and that a rule is necessary in order to repeal an existing rule for the immediate preservation of the public welfare. The facts constituting the emergency are as follows:
Section
Game 23.02 (2) was created in the Department's rulemaking order (03-070). The Department is repealing this section due to the unforeseen hardship that it has created on the Wisconsin racetracks. This financial hardship presents itself in multiple ways. The racetracks rely on an outside vendor to compute the purses earned by all individuals. The vendor produces a similar system for most greyhound racetracks in the country. The purses are generated by the amount of money wagered on all races over a period of time. The current system does not provide for bonus purses to be paid out based upon the residency of certain owners. The current system would have to be reprogrammed at a significant cost to the racetracks. Although the bonus purses could be calculated and paid without a computer, it would create excessive clerical work that would also be costly to the racetracks.
Additionally, Geneva Lakes Greyhound Track committed to paying a minimum payout of purses to the greyhound and kennel owners that race in Delavan. Geneva Lakes Greyhound Track will supplement out of their own money any purse amount that does not exceed the minimum payout. As a result of paying the bonus purse to Wisconsin owned greyhounds, the variance between the actual purse and the minimum purse is increased and the financial liability to the racetrack is increased. Since this supplement is voluntary, the racetrack has indicated that it will probably have to cease the supplemental purses to the participants. This would result in reduced payments to the vast majority of the kennel owners and greyhound owners participating at the racetrack.
In creating this rule, the Department did not intend to create the disadvantages caused by this rule.
Publication Date:
January 8, 2004
Effective Date:
January 8, 2004
Expiration Date:
June 6, 2004
Hearing Date:
March 16, 2004
Health and Family Services
(Medical Assistance, Chs. HFS 100—)
Rules adopted revising
chs. HFS 101 to 107, relating to the Medicaid Family Planning Demonstration Project.
Finding of emergency
The Department of Health and Family Services finds that an emergency exists and that the rules are necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, safety or welfare. The facts constituting the emergency are as follows:
On June 25, 1999, the Department submitted a request for a waiver of federal law to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the agency within the United States Department of Health and Human Services that controls states' use of Medicaid funds. On June 14, 2002, the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare granted the waiver, effective January 1, 2003. The waiver allows the state to expand Medicaid services by providing coverage of family planning services for females of child-bearing age who would not otherwise be eligible for Medicaid coverage. Under the waiver, a woman of child-bearing age whose income does not exceed 185% of the federal poverty line will be eligible for most of the family planning services currently available under Medicaid, as described in s.
HFS 107.21. Through this expansion of coverage, the Department hopes to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies in Wisconsin.
Department rules for the operation of the Family Planning Demonstration Project must be in effect before the program begins. The program statute, s.
49.45 (24r) of the statutes, became effective on October 14, 1997. It directed the Department to request a federal waiver of certain requirements of the federal Medicaid Program to permit the Department to implement the Family Planning Demonstration Project not later than July 1, 1998, or the effective date of the waiver, whichever date was later. After CMS granted the waiver, the Department determined that the Family Planning Demonstration Project could not be implemented prior to January 1, 2003, and CMS approved this starting date. Upon approval of the waiver, the Department began developing policies for the project and subsequently the rules, which are in this order. The Department is publishing the rules by emergency order so the rules take effect in February 2003, rather than at the later date required by promulgating permanent rules. In so doing, the Department can provide health care coverage already authorized by CMS as quickly as possible to women currently not receiving family planning services and unable to pay for them. The Department is also proceeding with promulgating these rule changes on a permanent basis through a proposed permanent rulemaking order.
Publication Date:
January 31, 2003
Effective Date:
January 31, 2003*
Expiration Date:
June 30, 2003
Hearing Dates:
April 25 & 28, 2003
* The Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules suspended this emergency rule on April 30, 2003
Insurance
