108.14(4) (4) The department may create as many employment districts and district appeal boards and may establish and maintain as many free public employment offices as it deems necessary to carry out the provisions of this chapter. The department shall have power to finance either partly or completely such public employment offices as it deems necessary under this chapter, from the funds appropriated to the department for its expenses under this chapter, whether or not the political subdivision in which such office is located agrees to pay or does pay any part of the expenses of such office.

108.14(5)(a)(a) The council on unemployment insurance shall advise the department in carrying out the purposes of this chapter. The council shall submit its recommendations with respect to amendments of this chapter to each regular session of the legislature, and shall report its views on any pending bill relating to this chapter to the proper legislative committee.

108.14(5)(ag) (ag) The vote of 7 of the voting members of the council on unemployment insurance is required for the council to act on a matter before it.

108.14(5)(ar) (ar) The department shall present to the council on unemployment insurance every proposal initiated by the department for changes in this chapter and shall seek the council's concurrence with the proposal. The department shall give careful consideration to every proposal submitted by the council for legislative or administrative action and shall review each legislative proposal for possible incorporation into departmental recommendations.

108.14(5)(b) (b) Under its authority in s. 15.04 (1) (c), the department may appoint employment councils for industries and local districts. Each such council shall be subject to the membership requirements of s. 15.227 (3).

108.14(6) (6) It shall be one of the purposes of this chapter to promote the regularization of employment in enterprises, localities, industries and the state. The department, with the advice and aid of any employment councils appointed under sub. (5) (b) and the council on unemployment insurance, shall take all appropriate steps within its means to reduce and prevent unemployment. The department shall also conduct continuing research relating to the current and anticipated condition of the fund to ensure the continued availability of benefits to unemployed individuals under this chapter. To these ends the department may employ experts, and may carry on and publish the results of any investigations and research which it deems relevant, whether or not directly related to the other purposes and specific provisions of this chapter. At least once a year the department shall compile and publish a summary report stating the experience of employer accounts, without naming any employer, and covering such other material as it deems significant in connection with the operations and purposes of this chapter.

108.14(7)(a)(a) The records made or maintained by the department or commission in connection with the administration of this chapter are confidential and shall be open to public inspection or disclosure only to the extent that the department or commission permits in the interest of the unemployment insurance program. No person may permit inspection or disclosure of any record provided to it by the department or commission unless the department or commission authorizes the inspection or disclosure.

108.14(7)(b) (b) The department may provide records made or maintained by the department in connection with the administration of this chapter to any government unit, corresponding unit in the government of another state or any unit of the federal government. No such unit may permit inspection or disclosure of any record provided to it by the department unless the department authorizes the inspection or disclosure.

108.14(7)(bm) (bm) Upon request of the department of revenue, the department may provide information, including social security numbers, concerning claimants to the department of revenue for the purpose of administering state taxes, identifying fraudulent tax returns, providing information for tax-related prosecutions, or locating persons or the assets of persons who have failed to file tax returns, who have underreported their taxable income, or who are delinquent debtors. The department of revenue shall adhere to the limitation on inspection and disclosure of the information under par. (b).

108.14(7)(c) (c) The department may provide for the printing and distribution of such number of copies of any forms, records, decisions, regulations, rules, pamphlets or reports, related to the operation of this chapter, as it deems advisable for the effective operation thereof.

108.14(8)(a)(a) The department may enter into administrative arrangements with any agency similarly charged with the administration of any other unemployment insurance law, for the purpose of assisting the department and such agencies in paying benefits under the several laws to employees while outside their territorial jurisdictions. Such arrangements may provide that the respective agencies shall, for and on behalf of each other, act as agents in effecting registration for work, notices of unemployment, and any other certifications or statements relating to an employee's claim for benefits, in making investigations, taking depositions, holding hearings, or otherwise securing information relating to coverage or contribution liability or benefit eligibility and payments; and in such other matters as the department may consider suitable in effecting the purpose of these administrative arrangements.

108.14(8)(b) (b) An employee's eligibility to receive benefits based on wages earned in employment in this state may be established through arrangements authorized in this subsection, and the employee shall then be paid the benefits due him or her under this chapter.

108.14(8)(c) (c) Any person who willfully makes a false statement or misrepresentation regarding a benefit claim, to the employment security agency of another state acting under any administrative arrangement authorized in this subsection, shall be punished in the manner provided in s. 108.24.

108.14(8m)(a)(a) The department may enter into reciprocal arrangements, with any agency administering another unemployment insurance law, whereby all the services performed by an individual for a single employing unit, which services are customarily performed in more than one state or jurisdiction, shall be deemed to be employment covered by the law of a specified state or jurisdiction in which a part of such services are performed, or in which such individual has residence, or in which such employing unit maintains a place of business; provided there is in effect, as to such services, an election by such employing unit, approved by the agency administering the specified law, pursuant to which all the services performed by such individual for such employing unit are deemed to be employment covered by such law.

108.14(8m)(b) (b) If the federal unemployment tax act is so amended as to make subject thereto remuneration paid for any maritime employment excluded under s. 108.02 (15) (k) 17., such exclusion under this chapter shall cease if the department enters into a reciprocal arrangement with respect to such employment pursuant to this paragraph, as of the effective date of such arrangement. The department may enter into reciprocal arrangements with the appropriate agencies of other states with respect to such maritime services, whereby all such services by an individual for a single employer, wherever performed, shall be deemed performed wholly within this state or within any such other state. Any such services thus deemed performed in Wisconsin shall also be deemed "employment" covered by this chapter, and the election requirement of s. 108.02 (15) (c) 2. shall not apply.

108.14(8n)(a)(a) The department shall enter into a reciprocal arrangement which is approved by the U.S. secretary of labor pursuant to section 3304 (a) (9) (B) of the internal revenue code, to provide more equitable benefit coverage for individuals whose recent work has been covered by the unemployment insurance laws of 2 or more jurisdictions.

108.14(8n)(b) (b) Arrangements under par. (a) may provide, as to any individual whose employment has been covered by this chapter and by the unemployment insurance law of one or more other participating jurisdictions, for transfer by the department to another agency of relevant records or information, and the acceptance and use of the records and information, in combination with similar data from other jurisdictions, by the other agency, as a basis for computing and paying benefits under the law administered by the other agency. Reciprocally, arrangements under par. (a) may provide for similar acceptance, combination and use by the department of data received from other jurisdictions to compute and pay benefits under this chapter.

108.14(8n)(c) (c) Arrangements under par. (a) shall provide for mutual acceptance by the participating agencies of data supplied under par. (b), including reasonable estimates of relevant data not otherwise available in the transferring agency.

108.14(8n)(d) (d) Arrangements under par. (a) shall specify an equitable basis for reimbursing the unemployment fund of each participating jurisdiction for any benefits paid therefrom on the basis of covered employment in, and data supplied by the agency of, another participating jurisdiction, out of the unemployment fund of the other jurisdiction.

108.14(8n)(e) (e) The department shall charge this state's share of any benefits paid under this subsection to the account of each employer by which the employee claiming benefits was employed in the applicable base period, in proportion to the total amount of wages he or she earned from each employer in the base period, except that if s. 108.04 (1) (f), (5), (7) (a), (c), (e), (L), (q), (s), or (t), (7m) or (8) (a) or 108.07 (3), (3r), or (5) (b) would have applied to employment by such an employer who is subject to the contribution requirements of ss. 108.17 and 108.18, the department shall charge the share of benefits based on employment with that employer to the fund's balancing account, or, if s. 108.04 (1) (f) or (5) or 108.07 (3) would have applied to an employer that is not subject to the contribution requirements of ss. 108.17 and 108.18, the department shall charge the share of benefits based on that employment in accordance with s. 108.07 (5) (a) and (b). The department shall also charge the fund's balancing account with any other state's share of such benefits pending reimbursement by that state.

108.14(8n)(f) (f) To facilitate the application of arrangements under par. (a) to this chapter, the department may, from data received by it under such arrangements, make reasonable estimates of quarterly wages and may compute and pay benefits accordingly.

108.14(8s)(a) (a) Overpayments of unemployment insurance benefits as determined under this chapter may be recouped from unemployment insurance benefits otherwise payable under the unemployment insurance law of another state, and overpayments of unemployment insurance benefits as determined under the unemployment insurance law of that other state may be recouped from unemployment insurance benefits otherwise payable under this chapter; and