Legislative Update Legislative Overview Dan Thompson, Executive Director League of Wisconsin Municipalities June 13, 2007 Curt Witynski, Assistant Director League of Wisconsin Municipalities March 24, 2011

Partisan Make-Up of 2011-2012 SENATE   REPUBLICANS DEMOCRATS MEMBERSHIP 19 14

Senate Leadership

Partisan Make-up of 2011-2012 ASSEMBLY REPUBLICANS DEMOCRATS Membership 60 38 (plus one independent)

Assembly Leadership

25 new Republican Assembly members Eight have served in public office: mayor city council member city clerk village trustee county supervisor school board member two town supervisors 17 have no previous experience in public office.

Assembly Speaker Fitzgerald and Senate Leader Fitzgerald

Joint Committee on Finance 12 Republicans and 4 Democrats Senate Members   Assembly Members Alberta Darling, Co-Chair Robin Vos, Co-Chair Luther Olsen Dan Meyer Sheila Harsdorf Dan LeMahieu Joe Leibham John Nygren Glenn Grothman Pat Strachota Randy Hopper Joel Kleefisch Lena Taylor (D) Tamara Grigsby (D) Robert Jauch (D) Jennifer Shilling (D)

Six Republican Senators on Joint Finance

Six Republican Assembly Members on Joint Finance

State Budget Bill – Introduction and Time Line Bill Introduced as AB 40 and SB 27 on 3/1/11. LFB in midst of analyzing the budget and should conclude their work this week. Budget Agency Briefings Next two weeks. Public hearings around the state in April, but not in Dane County.

State Budget Bill – Introduction and Time Line JFC votes probably in May. Bill taken up by each house in late May and June. Assembly Republicans may want to make more cuts or make other changes. Senate more likely to follow Governor and JFC leads.

State Budget Bill – Levy Limits Property tax levy increase limited to prior year’s net new construction. Ability to carry forward unused levy capacity repealed. New requirement -- if levy for debt service on G.O. debt authorized prior to July 1, 2005 is decreased, the municipality’s levy limit in the current year must be reduced by an equal amount. 

State Budget Bill – Shared Revenue Shared revenue payments for 2011 fully funded. Cuts 2012 payments to cities, villages and towns by $59.5 million. No cuts in 2013.

State Budget Bill – Shared Revenue 2012 reductions are apportioned among communities by population tier limited to valuation levels that increase with population or a maximum reduction of 50 percent, whichever is less. Larger, high property value communities hit harder than less populated, lower value communities.

State Budget Bill – Shared Revenue No cuts to utility aid component of shared revenue. Utility aid is re-estimated upward by $1,305,600 in 2011-12 and $2,098,000 in 2012-13 for the mill rate formula and by $2,707,200 in 2011-12 and $3,535,200 in 2012-13 for the capacity based formula. 

State Budget Bill – Expenditure Restraint Program ERP funded at same level as past two years: $58 million. Reduces the minimum inflation factor for calculation of the expenditure restraint payment eligibility from 3 percent to 0 percent.

State Budget Bill – Transportation Fully funds 3% General Transportation Aid increases for 2011. Cuts GTA funding by 10% in 2012. Cuts dollar per mile of road payment to towns by 3%.

State Budget Bill – Transportation Increases the maximum amount of reduction in GTA payments that a municipality could see from 5% to 15%. Municipalities receiving GTA on a share of cost bases will bear the brunt of the program cuts, 15% reductions in most cases.

State Budget Bill – Transportation Cuts transit operating aids by 10% in 2012. Changes funding source for transit operating aids from transportation fund to the general fund beginning in FY13. Funding for Connecting Highway Aids Program remains unchanged – no cuts.

State Budget Bill – Transportation Meanwhile, the state highway program actually received a slight increase in funding.

State Budget Bill – Recycling Repeals requirement that municipalities develop and implement effective recycling programs. Eliminates recycling grant program, which is currently funded at $32 million annually, and which covers on average 27% of municipal recycling program costs. Retains ban on landfilling aluminum, paper, glass, and plastic containers. 

State Budget Bill – Payments for Municipal Services Cuts payment for municipal services program by 10 percent.   

State Budget Bill – Computer Aids Increases funding for program reimbursing municipalities for personal property tax exemption on computers. Total aid payments increase from $77,400,000 to $81,074,000 for fiscal year 2012 and to $84.5 million for fiscal year 2013.   

State Budget Bill – Police and Fire Departments Authorizes municipalities to create joint protective services departments by combining police and fire departments into one department that performs both police and fire protection duties.  

State Budget Bill – State Mandate Relief Eliminates library maintenance of effort requirement. Reforms effluent limitations on phosphorous so that Wisconsin's regulations can be no more stringent than neighboring states.  

State Budget Bill – State Mandate Relief Requires DNR to repeal and recreate stormwater rules requiring communities to reduce their total suspended solids 40 percent by 2013 so that the standard is no more stringent than federal law and takes into account the cost of compliance.

State Budget Bill – Urban Alliance Letter Seeking Police and Fire Parity Urban Alliance is asking Legislature to modify budget to fix flaws in cost savings tools provided by Act 10, budget repair bill.   Treat police and fire the same as other municipal employees with respect to pension and health insurance contributions.

State Budget Bill – Urban Alliance Letter Seeking Police and Fire Parity Avoid loss of federal transit aid. Clarify that CPI limit on wage increases only applies in context of collective bargaining.  

AB 14, Repealing Maintenance of Effort on Emergency Services Spending Requirement

What About Repeal of Prevailing Wage Law The current law will be changed this session. The scope of that change, rollback or rollback plus, is to be determined.

Questions??? Comments???