On July 3 Governor Evers signed the state budget,
AB 56, into law as
Act 9 after making 78 partial vetoes to the bill. As explained in the
July 3 Capitol Buzz, five of those vetoes directly impacted municipalities.
In a nutshell, here's how the budget signed into law affects municipalities:
--Provides status quo funding levels for shared revenue, Expenditure Restraint Program, and Payment for Municipal Services Program.
--Maintains status quo for levy limits, which remain based on a community's net new construction number and are among the most restrictive in the country.
--Provides a 10% increase in funding for General Transportation Aids (GTA), which is the second 10 percent increase to GTA in a row.
--Provides a 2% increase in mass transit operating assistance.
--Provides an increase of $13,500,000 in general obligation bonding authority for the clean water fund.
--Provides an increase of $3,550,000 in general obligation bonding authority for the safe drinking water loan program.
--Authorizes the safe drinking water loan program to provide a maximum 30-year loan term, instead of the current maximum of 20 years.
--Reduces municipal cable franchise fees by a total of 1% by January 1, 2021, while at the same time creating a state aid program to compensate municipalities for the mandated fee reductions. Thanks to a partial veto, the state aid payments do not sunset after 10 years, but are ongoing.
What's not in the state budget as signed into law?
--No preemption of municipal powers to regulate the location and operation of quarries.
--No referendum requirement for imposing of continuing a local vehicle registration fee.
--No changes to levy limits.
--No restoration of condemnation powers for bike and recreation paths.
--No increase in funding for shared revenue.
--No changes to TIF law.
--No increase in competitive bidding threshold for public construction contracts.