Legislative Bulletin

December 30, 2024

Have You Designated Your ARPA Funds?

While many cities and villages have already obligated the entirety of their American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, there may still be some municipalities with funds remaining. Please remember to have your full ARPA allocation obligated by December 31st, 2024. To properly complete your obligations per U.S. Department of the Treasury guidelines, please visit Section 17 of the FAQs on the final rule starting on page 94, paying specific attention to Section 17.6. Municipalities should report these obligations along with the appropriate documentation in their April 2025 report to Treasury. No reporting is required before the annual report in April.  

Housing Funds Awarded; More Available

Recently, the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA) announced the latest round of competitive funding for the Vacancy-to-Vitality (2023 WI Act 18), Restore Main Street (2023 WI Act 15), and Infrastructure Access Loan (2023 WI Act 14) programs. The League worked with legislators and a core group of partners to create and fund these programs in the 2023 biennial budget and legislative session. The programs had bipartisan support and were signed by the Governor. Securing this $525 million in funding to provide workforce and senior housing in Wisconsin signified a historic investment to address the critical housing shortage in the state. 

To date, WHEDA has awarded over $16.3 million since the three competitive loan programs launched in fall of 2023, creating 967 affordable workforce and senior housing units. In this cycle, projects were funded in communities of all sizes in locations throughout the state. 

Eligible applications are funded semi-annually with the next cycle of loan applications opening in April. Please consider working with your development community to take advantage of the housing programs in the next round of funding. For more information see the League’s housing webpage.

For further details on the application process and awards, visit WHEDA’s program websites below: 

• Infrastructure Access Loan
• Restore Main Street Competitive Loan
• Vacancy-to-Vitality Competitive Loan

Also check out WHEDA’s brief summary of what municipalities should know about these programs. 

Along with the three new programs above, last session the League’s legislative housing priority also helped to launch the More Like Home Repair and Renew Program (Act 17) which offers lower-than-market rate loans through participating lenders to qualified homeowners. These loans can be used for repairing or replacing key structural areas or removing environmental contaminants in older homes. 

The final bill, Act 16, made numerous changes to housing development approvals at a local level, including limiting who may challenge final residential development decisions by local government bodies. The Court of Appeals District III recently addressed one of the first appeals brought under this new, narrowed scope on who may bring challenges to housing development approvals. A full summary of the provisions in Act 16 is available on the League's website and by Legislative Council.

Due to the successful legislative housing package, the League partnered with the Wisconsin Realtors Association and the Wisconsin Builders Association to expand the education and implementation of the new programs with a creative initiative entitled More Housing Wisconsin. This collaborative effort was created and launched to help local governments make modifications necessary to promote solutions that address our state’s housing shortage. 

One of the most useful products produced in the More Housing Wisconsin effort was a Municipal Housing Ready Checklist. This tool helps municipal officials and staff review and evaluate their zoning and subdivision regulations, land use plans, permitting process and fees, communications with developers, use of tax incremental financing, and other policies and procedures related to housing to ensure they are aligned with the goal of creating more workforce housing for the community.

The League plans to continue our focus on housing in the 2025-2026 Legislative Session, including efforts to revise these new programs based on feedback we’ve heard from members and partners. 

2025 Local Government Calendar Published

The Department of Revenue's State and Local Finance Division published their 2025 Local Government Calendar recently. This calendar helps local officials keep track of state filing deadlines and payment dates. A downloadable version of the calendar is available of DOR's website.

While you're adding dates to your calendar, be sure to check out the League's 2025 Calendar of Events. The first in-person event of the year is our member roundtables, starting with Beaver Dam on February 13th. We hope to see you at some of these events next year.

Save the Date for an Innovation Fund Webinar

The League is hosting a webinar next month on the Innovation Fund’s Planning Grants. Please save the date for Thursday, January 16th at 12:00 pm so you can join us for this hour-long webinar. Department of Revenue (DOR) staff will present on the application process, eligible recipients, and qualified planning projects. DOR will be followed by an opportunity for questions and a roundtable discussion to help spur new ideas. 

The Innovation Planning Grants are available to municipalities with a population not exceeding 5,000 to help fund staffing or consultants as your community considers the transfer of one or more allowable services or duties from a municipality to another entity. Awards can be up to $100,000 for each proposed project, with $3 million in total available. If your community has interest, please make your best effort to apply. 

Registration information for this webinar will be provided soon. For more information on this grant program, visit DOR’s website on Innovation Grants. 

Summary of State Agency Budget Requests

One of the first major steps in the State of Wisconsin’s biennial budgeting process is when state agencies craft their requests to the Governor. These requests are not always fully indicative of agency needs as cabinet agencies and other state entities base their requests off guidelines put out by the Department of Administration (DOA) every two years. Additionally, these submissions are just requests of the Governor from departments, boards, commissions, authorities, and other state entities, but the Governor may alter, reject, or create new appropriations in what will ultimately become the Executive Budget that the Governor will introduce. 

The Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB), a nonpartisan legislative service agency, recently released a summary document of 2025-2027 major budget requests from all 56 departments, boards, commissions, authorities, and other state entities. While this is a lengthy document, the table of contents can help direct you to specific agency or program requests your community may have an interest in reviewing. The 2025-2027 State Budget Overview of State Agency Major Request Items is available on LFB’s website. 

With state agency requests received and the Governor’s budget listening sessions complete, he and his team are now working on crafting his 2025-2027 Executive Budget. The Governor has sent a letter to the Legislature requesting to present this budget proposal in an address on either February 25th or March 4th, but the Legislature may choose to counter with their own dates. Once presented, the Joint Committee on Finance, the Legislature’s budget writing committee, will hold public hearings throughout the state, typically in April, and will begin work on accepting, amending, or rejecting the Governor’s proposals and crafting their own ideas, typically beginning in early May. Once complete, the full Legislature will vote on the proposal and send their budget to the Governor for his signature, partial veto, or full veto. 

If you’re interested in getting more in-depth on the development of the state budget, LFB has an informational paper with more details and helpful flowcharts explaining this process. 

Another Tool to Combat Homelessness

In November, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) was notified that a federal waiver was approved to provide housing benefits to certain Medicaid enrollees. In the 2019-2020 Legislative Session, a bill was approved that directed DHS to seek this waiver to allow Medicaid enrollees experiencing housing insecurity who are also impacted by substance abuse or mental health conditions to receive assistance and support in renting housing from an organization that is part of the Continuum of Care Program. 

Homelessness is an issue impacting communities of all sizes throughout the state. This program is a new tool that will help combat homelessness at its root cause and hopefully will help to solve long-standing problems experienced by program participants. Wisconsin will be one of the first states to create this waiver program, which will go into effect on February 1st, 2025. To learn more, visit DHS’s website.

Wisconsin Awarded Battery Recycling Funds

The U.S. Department of Energy recently announced that the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is one of seven funding recipients for battery collection and recycling projects. Numerous local governments and contractors for waste and recycling hauling, transfer stations, material recycling facilities, and landfills have experienced fires due to the improper disposal of certain household batteries. Proper battery disposal can help to prevent these dangerous and costly events.

While grant contract negotiations are still underway, the DNR has indicated that it intends to use this $1.6 million in funding for the ‘Charging Up Wisconsin Battery Recycling’ project which would include statewide outreach efforts and an expansion of the E-Cycle Wisconsin Electronics Collection Grant Program. These funds would be used to cover 50% of the costs of battery collection sites or events, primarily in Justice40 communities or in counties without a battery collection location. More information will be available once the contract is complete. 

Several municipalities have received the electronics recycling grant awards created by 2021 Wisconsin Act 79, a bill supported by the League. These grants are designed to improve access to electronics recycling in underserved areas. 

Email questions or comments to:

Toni Herkert, Government Affairs Director, therkert@lwm-info.org

Evan Miller, Government Affairs Specialist, emiller@lwm-info.org