Post-Budget Bill Action Heats Up

To help you keep informed, the bill number on the list below is a link to the bill history, which in turn includes a link to the text of the measure. The bill sponsor's name is an e-mail link which allows you to express your opinion or seek further information. And of course, you can ask us for information on any of these measures any tme. We'll keep you informed of pending action on bills and other Alliance issues in the "Upcoming Events" section at the bottom of this and future newsletters.

Bills we'll be watching -- and in many cases lobbying --  include:

SB 185, sponsored by Sen. Brian Burke (D-Milwaukee), replacing state law with union contract provisions for the discipline of police and firefighters.

SB 248, a telephone industry bill introduced Sept. 20 by Sen. Kevin Shibilski (D-Plover), a Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, to rescind the rights of municipalities to create telecommunications utilities. We believe Congress pre-empted legislation of this sort in the Telecommunications Act of 1996. A federal judge in Virginia agreed last spring. For the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's story on the Wisconsin implications, look here.

AJR 10, sponsored by Rep. Mark Pettis (R-Hertel), a constitutional amendment to limit property tax increases by cities, villages, towns and counties for individual parcels of property.

AJR 50, sponsored by Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend), a constitutional amendment to restrict the state's ability to impose regional or geographically selective taxes.

AB 35, sponsored by Rep. Jeff Stone (R-Greenfield), changing the bonding requirements for city, village and county officers.

AB 113, sponsored by Rep. Scott Gunderson (R-Union Grove), prohibiting local residency requirements.

AB 399, a bill sponsored by Rep. Donald Friske (R-Merrill), would exempt cities, towns, villages and counties from paying the state gas tax. It was amended and endorsed as amended by the Assembly Transportation Committee Sept. 20. Repeal of the state gas tax for other levels of government is one of the Alliance of Cities' pro-active issues. For more, look here.

AB 490, sponsored by Rep. Jeff Stone (R-Greenfield) would phase in, over a 10-year period, the transfer to the state transportation fund of all sales tax revenue from the sale of automobiles and auto parts.

AB 494, sponsored by Rep. Scott Gunderson (R-Union Grove), prohibiting cities and villages from approving annexations of land in another county.

AB 501, this session's urban towns bill, is again sponsored by Rep. Bonnie Ladwig (R-Racine). The bill would allow towns of at least 7,500 population that meet the bill's other criteria to undertake a process to become an "urban town," thereby freezing their borders and exempting themselves from most county zoning, but not giving them TIF or extraterritorial zoning or plat review authority.

AB 510, the compromise TIF legislation produced as a result of negotiations led by the  Wisconsin Economic Development Association. It eliminates some of the damaging provisions of the legislation that came out of former Gov. Tommy Thompson's TIF working group. The compromise is sponsored by Rep. Michael "Mickey" Lehman (R-Hartford)

911 Costs Targeted

The Speaker's Telecommunications Task Force, chaired by Rep. Phil Montgomery (R-Ashwaubenon), has appointed a subcommittee on 911 funding. The subcommittee includes Grant Staszak, who is representing Green Bay Mayor Paul Jadin, not the Alliance of Cities.

The task force -- which Democrats are criticizing for a lack of consumer representation -- turned its attention to 911 service not long after a national 911 group concluded the emergency calling system needs "significant investment to meet future challenges."

A half million 911 calls a day are handled nationwide. The systems that handle those calls -- more than 5,000 public service answering points   -- are doing an adequate job today, but they are ill-equipped to handle the challenges they are likely to face tomorrow, the National Emergency Number Association found. The cost of meeting those challenges is "likely to exceed current levels of public funding," the association said.

The group issued a report card that gave wireless communications an "Incomplete" for being behind schedule in providing location and call-back information to 911 centers. For a copy of the press release announcing the report card, look here. Amy Rinard picked up on the telephone companies' missed Oct. 1 deadline for bringing 911 systems up to stuff. See her Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story here.

The governor's budget vetoes included:

• Life Cycle Costs for Major Highway Program: The governor vetoed this very sensible requirement on the grounds that it’s too hard to estimate. Let’s try again. Or, ask a legislator to request that it be done for newly enumerated highways.
• Long Range Transportation Investment Planning Committee: McCallum eliminated this amendment that was endorsed by all of the local government associations as well as environmental and alternative transportation groups. The governor said that it was duplicating the Department of Transportation’s 20-year plans. He apparently didn’t understand the amendment, which was supposed to find a way to pay for all of the programs, especially big rail and rail transit projects, that get lip service in plans but then face a Herculean task when it comes to funding relative to highways.
• Corridor Land Use Planning Grant: The governor vetoed the amendment that would have provided $500,000 to help local governments and DOT plan land use along state highways. This won the support of an unusual coalition of the DOT, enviros, and the roadbuilders. We supported it to give local activists the chance to preserve land and stop commercial sprawl at interchanges. The roadies wanted it to preserve the right of way for through traffic.

A missed opportunity for a veto:

• Light Rail in Urban Communities: The governor failed to veto this seemingly perrenial attempt on the part of some in the Assembly to thwart local sentiment for major transit improvements to revitalize Milwaukee's downtown. If successful, this provision will scuttle local efforts approved by the mayor and county executive for the second time, despite earmarked federal funds for the project.

On the good side, the governor:

• Vetoed an amendment that would have required enumeration for the high-speed rail project and an 80% federal share.
• Eliminated an amendment that would have made it hard to get much money to mitigate the Stillwater Bridge, a project that should at least come along with big bucks for things to reduce the sprawl damage it otherwise will cause.
• Vetoed the amendment to allow advertisers to cut a swath through vegetation for a 6-second viewing window for billboards. However, billboard interests are fighting SB 219, which would cap the number of billboards and gradually allow local communities to remove billboards.

City Spending Report Delayed

A  report from the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, "Perspectives on City Finances," which details per-capita growth in operating budgets and capital spending over a five-year period, as well as growth in general government, street maintenance and public protection costs in Wisconsin cities with a population over 10,000 is now due to be released in early October.

Alliance members should have received advance copies of the report, and your comments are being considered for the press release that will accompany the report.

One of the questions the Taxpayers Alliance report doesn't discuss is whether cities are overtaxing and overspending.Steven Deller, an economist with the UW College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and UW Extension, sought to answer that question, and the answer he came up with is "no."

A press release on his study is here.

Quick takes

The 4th District Court of Appeals on Sept. 19 sent directly to the state Supreme Court a lawsuit challenging the Department of Revenue's unilateral acceleration of tax breaks for owners of farmland under the state use-value assessment law. The court said  the issue was "undeniably a matter of substantial statewide importance" and that the highest state court should
decide it. For a news story on that development, look here.

Being in trouble with the IRS usually is no laughing matter, but it is for Beaver Dam Mayor Tom Olson. Olson got a letter from the IRS soberly informing him he owes one cent on last year's taxes. "When I got it, it cracked me up," Olson said. "I've been filing tax forms for almost 50 years, and I've never had a problem with the IRS." The IRS told Olson it intends to deduct the penny from his federal tax rebate.

Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk "has mysteriously embraced an annexation policy that is at best naive and at worst a sharp dagger aimed at Madison's wellbeing," Marc Eisen, editor of the weekly newspaper Isthmus, wrote in a column. Falk's apologia of her proposed annexation moratorium, among other things, defended the status quo and prompted a response from the Alliance's Rich Eggleston that can be found here.

Wisconsin “may win the prize’’ of having the worst state budget mess, said Iris J. Lav, deputy director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington think tank.

Madison's Common Council has voted to resume compliance checks to determine whether businesses are illegally selling tobacco to minors, but this time it's performing the task for the state. The city's old compliance-check program was effective, but was outlawed by the Legislature.

Upcoming Events