Budget Review Continues, Further Details Provided

February 22, 2021 | Number 8

Bill Changing CPI Period for ERP Purposes Signed into Law

Last week, Governor Evers signed AB 2/SB 2 into law as, Act 1, a package of changes to laws and programs administered by the Department of Revenue (DOR). The League supports this legislation because it changes the date by which DOR must calculate CPI for the Expenditure Restraint Program from September to August, which better aligns with the timing of local budgeting.

The Act also requires all members of boards of review to complete DOR sanctioned training each year, except that only one member needs to attend training in-person each year. Prior law required that at least one member of the board of review attend DOR training within the two-year period beginning on the date of the board's first meeting. While Act 1 generally took effect on February 21, 2021, the board of review training requirement takes effect on January 1, 2022.

Governor's State Budget -- Impacts on Municipalities Analyzed

Last week, Governor Evers introduced his 2021-2023 state budget proposal as AB 68/SB 111. League staff published a Capitol Buzz on February 16 summarizing items in the proposal affecting municipalities. Read the Buzz here. DOR Secretary Peter Barca provided a budget summary at a League meeting on Friday. See his PowerPoint presentation here.

Additional Items Affecting Municipalities. Since Tuesday, League staff has discovered additional items in the Governor's budget affecting municipalities including annexations, the Expenditure Restraint program, grievance procedures, and the competitive bidding threshold for public construction contracts. READ MORE.

30,000 Population Threshold for Sales Tax Authority. Many local officials have asked why the Governor's local sales tax proposal applies only to communities with populations over 30,000. The Governor's staff has not offered any solid rationale or policy reasons for establishing the cutoff at 30,000. DOR Secretary Peter Barca explained to League members during a Zoom call on Friday that the goal of the provision is to open up discussion on ways to provide local governments with alternative sources of revenue. The League asked for and continues to support a broader sales tax authorization. We anticipate this will be an ongoing, long term discussion with state policymakers.

Possible areas of agreement between Legislature and the Governor? Last week, the Co-Chairs of the Legislature's budget writing committee, Rep. Mark Born and Sen. Howard Marklein, mentioned local transportation aids and broadband as two budget items on which they agree with the Governor prioritizing and on which they could anticipate a budget compromise.

What happens next in the state budget process? The Legislative Fiscal Bureau will take the next 3-4 weeks to prepare a comprehensive analysis of the Governor's bill for the Joint Finance Committee (JFC). Starting in mid to late March, JFC will schedule committee hearings and invite selected agency heads to appear and testify before the committee on their respective agency budgets. Public hearings on the bill are then held in three to five locations throughout the state, starting in early April. After the agency and public hearings, JFC begins meeting several days each week through the end of May to take votes on various aspects of the bill. It is anticipated that the JFC will work from the current budget and not the Governor's budget as its base document for preparing its version of the 2021-2023 state budget.

At the end of the JFC budget process, all JFC modifications to the current budget will be introduced as a substitute amendment to AB 68/SB 111 and sent to the full legislature for floor votes in each house. The legislature generally takes the bill up in June and sends its final product to the governor by the end of the month. The governor completes veto review within 30 days of receiving the bill, and then signs it into law.

Update on the latest Federal COVID Relief Bill

The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote and pass this week a massive COVID stimulus bill that includes a state and local government relief component. The bill would create a new State and Local Coronavirus Relief Fund that would provide substantial dedicated allotments to all Wisconsin cities and villages. Funds are available until expended and must be used to address the pandemic or its negative economic impacts, including to replace revenue lost, delayed, or decreased as a result of the pandemic. More information is available in the documents linked below.

One Page Description of the State and Local Relief Component

A “State and Local Allocation Output” estimates spreadsheet showing allotments for Wisconsin cities and villages

A guide to reading the state and local allocation output estimates spreadsheet

RECENTLY INTRODUCED LEGISLATION

Budget Bill Introduced

AB 68/SB 111, State Finances and Appropriations, Constituting the Executive Budget Act of the 2021 Legislature. For additional League analysis see above.

Law Enforcement Reform Package Introduced

AB 108/SB 120, Law Enforcement Agency Policies on the Reporting Use of Force. Current law requires each law enforcement agency to have a publicly available policy regulating the use of force by law enforcement officers. This bill requires each such policy to provide the instances in which a use of force must be reported, how to report a use of force, and a requirement that officers who engage in or observe a reportable use of force must report it. This bill also prohibits disciplining a law enforcement officer for reporting a violation of an agency's policy or standard regarding the use of force. Senator's Wanggaarrd (R-Racine) and Taylor (D-Milwaukee) and Representative Spiros (R-Marshfield). The League supports this bill.

AB 109/SB 123, Annual Report on Law Enforcement Use of Force.

Current law requires the Department of Justice to collect certain information concerning criminal offenses committed in Wisconsin. This bill requires DOJ to collect data and publish an annual report on law enforcement use of force incidents, including incidents where there was a shooting, where a firearm was discharged in the direction of a person (even if there was no injury), and where other serious bodily harm resulted from the incident. The bill requires certain demographic information to be collected about each such incident, and reported annually by DOJ on its Internet site. Senator's Wanggaarrd (R-Racine) and Taylor (D-Milwaukee) and Representative Spiros (R-Marshfield). The League supports this bill.

AB 110/SB 122, Public Access to Policies Regarding the Use of Force by Law Enforcement. Current law requires each law enforcement agency to have a policy regarding the use of force by its law enforcement officers and to make the policy available for public scrutiny. This bill requires the law enforcement agency to post its policy on the law enforcement agency website or, if the agency does not have one, on the municipality's site. Under the bill, if the policy is changed, the law enforcement agency must post the updated policy as soon as practically possible but no later than one year after the change is made. The bill also requires a law enforcement agency to prominently post a means to request a copy of the policy and to provide a copy of the current policy at no charge no later than three business days after a request is made. Senator's Wanggaarrd (R-Racine) and Taylor (D-Milwaukee) and Representative Spiros (R-Marshfield). The League supports this bill.

AB 111/SB 119, Decreasing Municipal Shared Revenue Payments based on Decreased Funding for Law Enforcement Officers. Under this bill, if in any year a municipality decreases the amount of its municipal budget dedicated to hiring, training, and retaining law enforcement officers so that it is less than the amount dedicated to that purpose in the previous year, the municipality will receive a county and municipal aid payment that is reduced by the amount of that decrease. In addition, the bill provides the following:

The amount of all such reductions will be distributed to the municipalities that did not reduce their law enforcement budgets in proportion to each municipality's share of the total amount of county and municipal aid payments.
The amount of the reduced payment that the municipality receives becomes the amount of county and municipal aid that the municipality will receive in subsequent years.
The reductions under the bill do not apply to a municipality that transfers responsibility for providing law enforcement to another local unit of government or that enters into a cooperative agreement to share law enforcement responsibilities with another local unit of government.

Senator Wanggaarrd (R-Racine) and Representative Spiros (R-Marshfield). The League opposes this bill.

AB 112/SB 118, Creation of an Independent Use of Force Review Advisory Board. This bill creates an independent use of force review advisory board. Under the bill, the board conducts independent investigations of deaths and serious injuries to law enforcement officers and deaths and serious injuries to others resulting from an action or omission of a law enforcement officer. The board must recommend measures to reduce the probabilities of deaths and serious injuries from similar causes and must also review its previous recommendations to determine if they were implemented and evaluate their effectiveness. Senator's Wanggaarrd (R-Racine) and Taylor (D-Milwaukee) and Representative James (R-Altoona). The League is Neutral on this bill.

AB 114/SB 117, Boards of Police and Fire Commissioners in Populous Cities. This bill makes numerous changes that affect the Police and Fire Commissions in Milwaukee and Madison and the protective services departments of both cities. The changes include altering the composition of the PFC boards, requiring certain training for PFC board members, establishing certain requirements related to hiring and oversight of Chiefs of protective services departments in both cities, creating an Executive Director or Independent Monitor position in both cities, and altering the judicial review process for police and fire department disciplinary cases in a 1st class city. Senator's Wanggaarrd (R-Racine) and Taylor (D-Milwaukee) and Representative Senator's Wanggaarrd (R-Racine) and Taylor (D-Milwaukee) and Representative Brandtjen (R-Menomonee Falls). The League opposes this bill.

SB 121, Prohibiting the Use of Choke Holds in Use of Force Policies. Current law requires law enforcement agencies to develop policies on the use of force by law enforcement officers in the performance of their duties. This bill provides that a law enforcement agency may not authorize in its use of force policy the use of choke holds by law enforcement officers, except in life-threatening situations or in self-defense. Senator's Wanggaarrd (R-Racine) and Taylor (D-Milwaukee) and Representative Spiros (R-Marshfield). The League supports this bill.

SB 124, Community-Oriented Police-Housing Grant Program. This bill establishes a $600,000 grant program, administered by the Department of Justice, for cities with a population of 60,000 or more to fund community-oriented policing-house programs. Based on the successful program started in the City of Racine in 1996 which embraced the concept of community policing as a way of providing long-term stabilization to communities. Senator's Wanggaarrd (R-Racine) and Taylor (D-Milwaukee) and Representative Spiros (R-Marshfield). The League supports this bill.

PUBLIC HEARINGS THIS WEEK

No public hearings on municipal bills of interest scheduled this week.

IN THE NEWS

GOP budget committee chairs shed some light on what Republicans may support, oppose in Tony Evers' budget proposal

Republicans also have signaled a level of support for spending taxpayer money to expand broadband access in the state, but the GOP proposal could fall short of the $200 million being called for by Evers, five times the combined spending of the last four budgets on the matter. Read the article. Click here to comment on this article on the League's Facebook page.

Wisconsin regulators taking comments on vexing solar leasing question

Despite repeated attempts to deflect the issue to lawmakers, Wisconsin regulators are wrestling with the question again as part of a dispute between the state’s largest utility and an Iowa company that wants to lease solar panels to the city of Milwaukee. Read the article.