Register Now for Nov. 12
Municipal Security Conference
The Nov. 12 municipal security conference sponsored by Mayor Paul Jadin of Green Bay is coming together as local officials in Wisconsin and across the country grapple with the costs of preparing to combat the terrorist threat. The conference will look at the response to terrorism from the local, state and national perspectives, as well as explore bioterrorism and other timely topics.
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Mayor Jadin invites all municipal leaders, state legislators, federal lawmakers and everyone concerned with the subject of municipal security to the conference. For a copy of the mayor's invitation, please click here. For a registration form, click here. (Come back to the newsletter by clicking the back button of your browser.) For a draft agenda, click here. For more information, e-mail Grant Staszak, Mayor Jadin's assistant who is putting together the conference. |
The conference will be held at the KI Convention Center, 333 Main St., Green Bay. The cost will be $25 per person, which will include lunch.
Bioterrorism Preparedness
'A Work in Progress'
Wisconsin's preparedness for bioterrorism is a "work in progress," the Assembly Public Health Committee was told Oct. 22.
Emergency Management Administrator Ed Gleason and Health and Family Services Secretary Phyllis Dubé, co-chairs of the Governor’s Task Force on Terrorism Preparedness, told the committee that $2.6 million for hazardous material teams across the state could be available by Jan. 1.
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But committee members and experts
indicated that could be just the beginning, and there is no telling how those costs will
tally up in the end. "We've never had to draw this picture before," said Rep. Terri McCormick (R-Appleton). She said there could be a need for mass immunization, a database containing the names of those who have been immunized, and isolation chambers for large numbers of people. "We know there are going to be inevitable costs," Rep. McCormick said |
"The potential for this to become a very serious problem is real," said Dr. Dennis Maki, chief of infectious diseases at the University of Wisconsin Medical School. He said the U.S. lost 10 years in getting a
smallpox vaccine into production. Maki said we have to be prepared for the other shoe to
drop. If smallpox were released in a single spot, the system could most likely cope with
and contain the infection, he said. |
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| Dr. Stephen W. Hargarten, chairman of emergency
medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin, said we need money at the federal level, at the state level and at the local level to deal with the situation, and however much money it takes, it will protect citizens not only against bioterrorism, but against toxic chemical spills, serious accidents and a host of other things as well. "I look at it as an investment," Hargarten said. There are no mechanisms in place nationally to provide advance warning of bioterrorism, there are gaping holes in systems to cope with it, and too little is being done to avert a truly deadly threat, the New York Times reported Oct. 23. To see the Times' stories, click here. The U.S. Conference of Mayors on Oct. 25 asked the federal government for $1.5 billion, the amount it estimates its 1,200 member cities have spent since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. For a story on that request, look here. |
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Telecom Compromise?
A task force is looking for a compromise between local governments that want the option of providing high-speed Internet and other broadband communications services to their citizens, and phone companies that want local government booted out of the field.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel quoted Rep. Mark Pettis (R-Hertel) as saying AB 518, the phone industry plan to prohibit communities from forming telecommunications utilities -- 20 have received Public Service Commission permission to do so -- is unlikely to emerge from his Assembly Information Policy Committee, but the issue may be addressed in a telecom package.
Rep. Phil Montgomery (R-Ashwaubenon), chair of the Speaker's Telecommunications Task Force, said the group needed to find a "middle ground" between state law that prohibits barriers to entry into the field by muncipalities and the use of tax dollars to compete with the private sector.
It's still not too late to register your disapproval with the idea of freezing local government out of the telecommunications business. For the League of Wisconsin Municipalities' sample resolution to express that sentiment, go here. For the Journal Sentinel story, go here.
Utility Shared Revenue Bill
Clears First Hurdle
AB 584, to lift the cap on utility shared revenue payments and create a separate utility shared revenue account, was endorsed unanimously by the Assembly Energy and Utilities Committee Oct. 25. The value of a community's utility property that is eligible for shared revenue payments is now capped at $125 million. The bill would gradually raise that to $250 million, and similarly increase a per-capita cap on utility shared revenue payments. |
Wisconsin Energy, which is planning a $7 billion expansion of its generating capacity in the state, hailed the approval. For its take on the issue, look here.
Bills to Watch
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. Click on either. And of course, you can ask us for information on any of these measures any tme. We'll try to 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, 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.
SB 267, by the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules, limiting local flexibility in providing emergency medical services.
AJR 10, 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, 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, by Rep. Jeff Stone (R-Greenfield), changing the bonding requirements for city, village and county officers.
AB 113, by Rep. Scott Gunderson (R-Union Grove), prohibiting local residency requirements.
AB 399, 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, 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, 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 passed the Assembly 93-3 Oct. 23. It was 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).
AB 518, introduced by Rep. Neal Kedzie (R-Elkhorn), is the companion bill to SB 248.
AB 524, by the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules, limiting local flexibility in providing emergency medical services.
AB 584, by Rep. Tim Hoven (R-Port Washington), on utility shared revenue payments.
Upcoming
Events
Oct 30
Ed at Smart Growth
Conference, Janesville
Oct. 31
Telecom Task Force, 10 a.m., 417 N, Capitol
Nov. 5-6
"Taking Stock"
Transportation. Summit
Nov. 7-9 Lake Management
Conference, Madison
Nov. 12
Municipal Preparedness
Conference, Grn Bay
Nov. 29-30 Alliance meeting, Sheboygan
2002
June
14-18 U.S. Conference of Mayors, Madison
THE WISCONSIN ALLIANCE OF CITIES
14 West Mifflin Street Suite 206
Madison, Wisconsin 53703
(608) 257-5881
