Assembly Calendar Highlights for Tuesday, April
25
AJR-99.
Declares May as Manufacturing Month in Wisconsin.
SJR-33.
Proposed constitutional amendment that would prohibit partial vetoes
from creating new sentences (1st Consideration).
AB-937.
Evaluation of the SAGE program.
AB-954.
Income/franchise tax credit for workplace wellness
programs.
AB-955.
Income/franchise tax credit for information technology equipment
used to maintain medical records in electronic form.
AB-999/SB-546.
Identification and cleanup of properties that are environmentally
contaminated; properties with residual contamination; modifies
environmental remediation tax incremental financing program; exempts
local governmental units from solid waste management standards with
respect to certain properties; liability of certain persons for
environmental contamination on property on which a cleanup has been
conducted.
SB-619.
Business mergers, conversions and other business
combinations.
Senate Regular Session Calendar Highlights for Tuesday,
April 25
Confirmation vote on DOA secretary Stephen Bablitch
and Commerce secretary Mary Burke.
SB-145. Deferred prosecution agreements: bad
checks;
SB-677. Village of Kimberly TIF.
Senate Extraordinary Calendar Highlights for Tuesday,
April 25
SB-483. Income/franchise tax credit for sales and use taxes paid on
purchase of Internet equipment used in the broadband
market.
SB-563. Income/franchise tax credits for
expenses related to film production services and for capital
investments made by a film production company.
AB-4. Nonrefundable individual income tax
credit for certain amounts relating to health savings accounts that
may be deducted, or are exempt from, federal income
taxes.
Governor Bill Signings and Vetoes Over the Past Three
Weeks
ACTS
Assembly Bills (Act number, followed by Bill
number)
261 (AB-1014):
Obtaining, selling, or soliciting a telephone record that pertains
to another person without the person’s consent.
330 (AB-973):
Expands purpose for which a town may create a tax incremental
financing district
331 (AB-1008):
Authorizes city of Monroe to allocate positive tax increments from
one or more of its districts to another.
339 (AB-230):
Licensing of motor vehicle salvage dealers.
340 (AB-122):
Medical assistance reimbursement for transportation by specialized
medical vehicles.
349 (AB-129):
Late payments of property tax installments.
357 (AB-156):
Allows certain counties to create TIF districts.
361 (AB-208):
Rural enterprise development zones (JOBZ).
368 (AB-387):
Eligibility of a person enrolled in a program that confers a
master’s degree in nursing for a loan under the Nursing Student Loan
Program.
Senate Bills
322 (SB-386):
Immunity from civil liability for providing safety services related
to the inspection and installation of child safety restraint systems
in motor vehicles.
325 (SB-161):
Civil liability exemption for claims resulting from weight gain and
obesity.
328 (SB-596):
Authorizes a city or village to make changes in TIF
districts.
303 (SB-350):
Display of political signs in condominiums.
335 (SB-352):
Wisconsin Aerospace Authority.
336 (SB-375):
Metal fabrication tool builder liens.
259 (SB-602):
Development zone credit for the license fees paid by certain
insurers.
292 (SB-477):
Licensing midwives.
VETOES
Assembly Bills
AB-299.
Effect of county shoreland zoning ordinances in territories annexed
by cities, villages or towns or incorporated at cities or villages. Veto
message.
AB-509.
Liability of local units for damages caused by an insufficiency or
want of repair of a highway. Veto
message.
AB-871.
Post-dated checks and checks given for past consideration. Veto
message.
AB-1060.
Virtual charter schools. Veto
message.
AB-1071. Time
limits for persons under 18 to bring action against a health care
provider. Veto
message.
AB-1072. Awards
for malpractice; evidence of compensation for those
damages—collateral source payments. Veto
message.
AB-1074.
Recovery of attorney fees in medical malpractice cases. Veto
message.
Senate Bills
SB-68.
Supplementing special education funding with lapsed SAGE contract
money. Veto
message.
SB-420. Group health benefit plans. Veto
message.
SB-447. Punitive damage awards. Veto
message.
SB-501.
Damages for frivolous claims. Veto
message.
SB-578.
Confidentiality of health care review records; immunity. Veto
message.
SB-617.
Defined network plans. Veto
message.
JOBZ Act Signed into Law with Partial Veto
Governor
Doyle on April 19 signed AB-208,
which creates an enterprise zone program. The program, to be
administered by the Department of Commerce, will provide an
estimated $10 million in refundable tax credits for businesses
located in designated zones anywhere in the state that create jobs
and train their workers.
Governor Doyle exercised a number of partial vetoes [Partial
veto message] to include Madison and Milwaukee in the business
development program. The bill was originally intended to help rural
areas of the state, which was deleted by the partial veto according
to Rep.
Kitty Rhoades and Reps.
Zien and Suder.
Governor Signs Bill Limiting Obesity Lawsuits/Vetoes
Punitive Damages Reform
After vetoing vrtually
identical legislation last session, Governor Doyle signed a bill (SB-161) that provides liability exemptions relating to claims
for damages for injuries based on weight gain or obesity by virtue
of food consumption.
On the same day, Governor Doyle vetoed
legislation intended to make the recovery of punitive damages more
difficult and restore a standard the Legislature thought it had
adopted in the 1995 session.
Road to the Future Committee Conducts Hearings
On
February 8, Assembly Speaker John Gard and Senate Majority Leader
Dale Schultz created the Road to the Future Committee to study ways
to ensure the security of transportation funding and find
efficiencies that will save state funds.
The first of five hearings held last week indicate much
discussion will be forthcoming in future meetings. Testimony
regarding the need for more money for freeways in southeastern
Wisconsin raised concerns for the future of funding for local road
systems in northern and western Wisconsin.
Members of the committee are: Sen. Daniel Kapanke and Rep.
Mark Gottlieb, co-chairs; Sens. Scott Fitzgerald, David Zien, Glenn
Grothman, Russell Decker, and Robert Wirch; and Reps. Jeff Stone,
Donald Friske, Dean Kaufert, Josh Zepnick, and Michael
Sheridan.
Midwife Licensing Bill Signed into Law
On April 10, Governor Doyle signed 2005
Senate Bill 477, creating 2005
Wisconsin Act 292, requiring the licensing of
midwives.
On April 20, the Governor also signed AB-387,
which extends eligibility of the Nursing Student Loan Program to
include students pursuing master's and doctoral nursing degrees.
Under current law, only nursing students enrolled in associate or
bachelor degree programs are eligible for the loans.
For more
information on legislation of interest to CTCW members, go to the CTCW
Tracking Report. |
