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Recapping November's Legislative Floorperiod
Last week, both the Senate and Assembly were in session. Over 100 different bills saw progress during the November floorperiod, including several proposals with League lobbying positions.
During the Senate session on Tuesday, November 18th, two bills supported by the League to expand childcare access were passed. While not a direct municipal responsibility, challenges with access to open and affordable childcare slots is something the League routinely hears from members who are looking to grow their communities. Senate Bill (SB) 291 expands the Business Development Tax Credit to include ongoing employer expenses for childcare and SB 376 aligns Wisconsin’s tax credits for employer-provided childcare with federal tax breaks. Both received bipartisan votes and await further action in the Assembly.
On Wednesday, November 19th, the Assembly met in session to vote on dozens of proposals, many of which revolved around elections. This includes Assembly Bill (AB) 312 which requires clerks in cities, villages, and towns to offer a minimum number of hours for in-person absentee voting without an appointment before an April or November election. Following an amendment process to limit the impact of the bill, all hours required to be offered over the number of hours offered in the April 2024 election would be reimbursed at $50 an hour. If reimbursement funding is unavailable, the hour requirements would not apply. As passed, the following hours would be required:
- Municipalities with fewer than 600 registered voters - 10 hours of in-person absentee voting
- Municipalities with 600 to 799 registered voters - 15 hours of in-person absentee voting
- Municipalities with 800 or more registered voters - 20 hours of in-person absentee voting
While we still do not support this legislation, the League was instrumental in working with the authors on amendment language that minimizes the impact to cities and villages. This includes advocating for the tiers to recognize that municipalities of different sizes have varying numbers of voters to accommodate, requesting funding for the hours that municipalities are required to provide, delaying the effective date until the November 2026 election to avoid a rushed implementation, and allowing municipalities to hold hours together in one joint location.
AB 616, which also passed the Assembly, provides $1.5 million in funding for the reimbursements in AB 312. Both AB 312 and AB 616 are yet to receive hearings in Senate committee.
Two other bills of note passed the Assembly. First, on elections, AB 426 proposes jailing municipal elections officials for up to 90 days if they are alleged to violate the rights of election observers. This bill is strongly opposed by the League.
Second, outside of the area of elections, SB 337 would provide $5,000 grants to municipalities with a population of less than 7,500 to obtain external grant writing and compliance assistance services. While already passed by the Senate, the Assembly added an amendment that would extend the municipal Maintenance of Effort requirements for law enforcement to counties. The Senate must now either concur in the new amendment, sending the bill to the Governor, or reject the amendment, sending it back to the Assembly.
Closing Out the Legislative Session
While committee action will continue in early December, the chambers will not meet again until the next floorperiod scheduled from January 13th to January 22nd. The chambers will then be back on the floor in February for what may be the final session days of the 2025-2026 Legislative Session.
In addition to the summaries above, four bills the League has lobbied on have now been passed by both chambers of the legislature. The Governor will receive these bills on or before December 4th and will act on them within a week. Those four proposals will be discussed in an upcoming Legislative Bulletin after their final action by the Governor to sign or veto these bills.
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