State Budget Update
Joint Finance Action
On Friday, June 8, the Wisconsin Legislature’s Joint Committee
on Finance (JFC) completed its work on the 2007 State Budget
proposal and forwarded the document to the full Legislature on a
tie (8 to 8) vote. The JFC version of the bill, SB 40, will move to the
Senate where it is expected to be acted upon later this month.
(While JFC deadlocked on the motion to recommend passage as
amended, the Committee did vote unanimously to introduce and
adopt a substitute amendment, which will be the version advanced
to the Senate.)
In
our May 15 issue of Tidbits, we discussed the state budget process, including a
listing of the eight “new” major funding sources recommended by
Governor Doyle. We provided more detailed information on those
funding sources in our June 1 edition. Seven of the
eight new funding sources remain in the substitute version
developed by the Joint Finance Committee. All remained in the
budget when voting to remove the new or increased fees or taxes
failed on 8 (Republican) to 8 (Democrat) votes. The seven are:
-
Real estate
transfer fees
-
Hospital tax
-
Cigarette
Tax
-
Motor
Vehicle Registration fees and other Transportation fees
-
Tipping Fees
-
Oil Company
Tax
-
Transfer
from the Patient’s Compensation Fund
(It should be
noted, however, that the vehicle registration fees are included
in both Democrat and Republican budget plans.)
The Governor’s
proposed increase in vital records (birth, death, marriage) fees
was rejected on a 14-2 vote.
Timing Going
Forward
The Democrat and Republican caucuses in both
Houses have begun meeting this week. The respective
caucuses will receive briefings on the JFC version of the budget
bill by members of the Legislative Fiscal Bureau and will begin
strategy discussions and deliberations on proposed amendments.
Senate leadership has imposed a “close of business day
Wednesday” deadline for submission by members of proposed
amendments to the JFC substitute amendment.
It is expected
to take the bill drafters in the Legislative Reference Bureau
seven days to draft the substitute amendment, meaning that any
Senate floor action could not commence until Monday, June 18, at
the very earliest. There is, however, expected to be substantial
program debate in the caucuses, and Senate action on its version
of the budget may not occur until the end of June.
Meanwhile, the
Assembly is expected to be crafting its own version of the
budget while the Senate deliberates, since its version will be
significantly different from the version proposed by the
Governor and the version expected to be adopted by the Senate -
particularly as it relates to new or increased fees and taxes.
The Assembly is not likely to take any official action, however,
until after July 4th.
Conference
Committee
All of this, of course, is necessary to and
setting the stage for a Conference Committee between the two
Houses - a committee that will be expected to do some tough
negotiating and arrive at some agreements that can garner a
majority vote in both the Senate and the Assembly and be signed
by the Governor.
While the
current biennium and fiscal year officially end on June 30,
2007, Wisconsin government does not shut down, and the state
continues to operate under the 2005-07 budget framework, with
appropriate adjustments made after the new biennial budget is
finally approved.
Comments Filed on DNR Mercury
Rule; Study Finds DNR’s Rule Doubles Costs
June 11 was the deadline for filing comments on DNR’s
controversial mercury rule. Industry comments focused on those
provisions that exceed the EPA’s Clean Air Mercury Rule (CAMR).
Generally, DNR's proposed rule tracks CAMR for the first two
phases – resulting in a 69 percent reduction in mercury
emissions from utility coal-fired units by 2019. But a final,
Phase III (2020 and beyond), requires a 90 percent reduction.
In addition, the proposed rule
allows only limited trading of reductions to achieve compliance
in Phases I & II, and bans trading altogether under Phase III
(i.e., each unit must hit the 90% target)Industry comments, such
as those filed by Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC), highlighted a
recent study by the Center for Energy and Economic Development (CEED).
The CEED Mercury Cost Study found that DNR trading restrictions
and the 90 percent target would increase the cost of operating
coal-fired generation facilities in Wisconsin by $450 million
between 2010 and 2020, or more than twice the cost of EPA’s CAMR.
Industry notes that these costs will substantially increase
electric rates but produce little or no environmental benefits.
They assert the incremental reductions under DNR’s rule from the
Wisconsin utilities will do little to reduce mercury found in
Wisconsin’s lakes and streams, which mostly comes from air
deposition from global mercury emissions.
Legislative Committee Fails to
Pass Compromise on DNR Interstate Pollution Rule
On June 13, the Joint Committee on Review of Administrative
Rules (JCRAR) failed to pass a compromise relating to EPA’s
Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR). The party-line 5-5 vote on the
motion, in effect, ended the Legislative review of the rule.
CAIR is EPA’s program to reduce
ozone and particulate matter pollution across the eastern United
States, and includes a model emission trading program and an
emissions allocation scheme to divvy-up emission allowances
among utilities. (Each NOx allowance allows a utility to emit
one ton of NOx.) DNR chose to change EPA’s allocation scheme
that penalizes existing coal plants by provideing windfall
allowances to natural gas facilities. The CEED Mercury Cost Study found that CAIR would increase
electric rates in Wisconsin by over $4 billion dollars even
without DNR’s revised allocation scheme.
Under DNR’s rule, all Wisconsin
investor-owned utilities see fewer allowances. For example,
Wisconsin Public Service Corporation (WPS) estimates that
changes to EPA’s allocations will cost their customers between
$1.5 and $2.0 million annually. On the other hand, DNR provides
a windfall to the Whitewater Cogeneration Facility owned by
Cogentrix Energy, an independent power producer out of
Charlotte, North Carolina.
The industrial ratepayers compromise position was offered by
Rep. LeMahieu as a motion at the June 13 JCRAR meeting. The
motion was supported by all Republicans and opposed by all
Democrats, causing it to fail.
Missouri Supreme Court Rules
Against City of St. Louis in Lead Paint Nuisance Case
The Missouri Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday, June 12, that
the city of St. Louis is not entitled to damages from the makers
of lead paint. City officials had claimed that several paint
manufacturers distributed the paint knowing it was "highly toxic
and posed a real and serious health threat, particularly for
children." Lead paint was widely used in homes around the
country before it was banned by the federal government in 1978
and has been linked to serious illnesses, mainly among children.
The Court, on a 4-3 decision, upheld the concept of traditional
causation, holding: “Any attempt to find liability absent actual
causation is an attempt to connect the defendant with an injury
or event that the defendant had nothing to do with. Mere logic
and common sense dictates that there be some causal relationship
between the defendant’s conduct and the injury or event for
which damages are sought.”
"The Supreme Court has spoken,
and there isn't ambiguity in what they said," said Tom Graves,
general counsel for the National Paint and Coatings Association,
which filed a brief in the case. "It's a slam-dunk. You have to
prove actual causation."
St. Louis is one of a number of
cities, including Milwaukee, and states around the country
seeking repayment for the cost of cleaning up lead paint in old
homes.
The results reached in the Missouri
case differ dramatically from the Thomas (“risk
contribution”) case rendered by the Wisconsin Supreme
Court in 2005.
Task Force Reviewing State IT
Projects
The Speaker’s Task Force on Failed
Information Technology Projects held its first meeting this week regarding IT projects that have
cost taxpayers nearly eighty million dollars.
State Auditor Jan Mueller spoke to
the committee and said inadequate planning and oversight have
led to cost overruns and missed deadlines in state IT projects.
The task force heard from various state departments, including
some that have had IT projects abandoned.
The task force is comprised of
sixteen public and private sector members with a wide background
of experience and expertise in IT projects. The next meeting of
the task force is July 16.
Governor Doyle Announces
Government Accountability Board Nominations
Gov. Jim Doyle recently announced his nominations to the
Government Accountability Board. The board was created under
Special Session Senate Bill 1 to serve as an independent,
non-partisan Government Accountability Board with funding and
independent authority to investigate and seek prosecution.
The nominees will now proceed to the
Senate and Assembly to receive confirmation.
The six nominees are:
-
The Honorable Michael W. Brennan
of Marshfield, former Clark County Circuit Court Judge
-
Chief Judge Thomas Cane of the
Wisconsin Court of Appeals – District III, of Wausau
-
The Honorable David G. Deininger
of Monroe, former Wisconsin Court of Appeals – District IV
Judge
-
The Honorable William Eich of
Madison, former Chief Judge of the Wisconsin Court of
Appeals – District IV
-
The Honorable James Mohr of
Eagle River, former Vilas County Circuit Court Judge
-
The Honorable Gerald C. Nichol
of Madison, former Dane County Circuit Court Judge
Wisconsin First in Overall
Healthcare Quality
For the first time in the four years that they have been
compiling the data, the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality ranked and
released composite scores to the respective states. This year
Wisconsin was listed as first in the overall quality of Health
Care, when measured against the remaining 50 States and the
District of Columbia.
Wisconsin scored a high of 65.76
overall, just ahead of Minnesota which scored a 62.77.
Wisconsin, as a state, has
traditionally scored well with respect to the health care
quality of its populace. Wisconsin’s worst category was home
health care where the score was only a 25, but the state ranked
very high in both ambulatory care and nursing home care. In the
hospital care category Wisconsin ranked first in the nation.
The scores were compiled after
looking at 129 quality measures in four different care
settings. The report is based upon surveys and information on
file at the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare respectively.
For more information on legislation of interest to CTCW
members, go to the CTCW Tracking Report. |
