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March Floor Session
The Legislature is scheduled to be on the floor March 11 – March 20.
Assembly leadership has told its members the Assembly will be in session on March 13 at noon and March 18 at 11am. The State of the Tribes will be on March 18. Members were told to continue to hold March 19 and 20 open for possible additional session days.
The Senate is expected to be in on March 18 for the State of the Tribes and possible floor session. It is unclear at this time if the Senate will be in on March 11 or not.
Cost-to-Continue Language
As proposals continue to be circulated in the building, more and more memos from Republicans are using the language “cost-to-continue”. For example, a cosponsorship memo this week said, “Because our State Budget is at cost-to-continue, we need to get creative to find areas we can relieve some unnecessary financial burdens.” In general terms, cost-to-continue means the state will continue to fund at the current funding levels, but programs will likely not see an increase in funding. It is expected when a budget is passed the funding will be at or near what was spent in the 2023-25 budget.
Audit Committee Looking at State Grants
The Joint Legislative Audit Committee approved a new audit from the Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) regarding the Administration of State Grants. According to a background memo from LAB, the audit would include “grants funded by the State from general purpose revenue, program revenue, and segregated revenue…State agencies typically administer state grant programs under authority granted by Wisconsin Statutes. Depending upon their purposes, state grants may be awarded directly to entities such as local units of government, universities, law enforcement agencies, nonprofit organizations, telecommunications providers, businesses, or individuals. State agencies may also award grants to an organization, which then itself will further distribute funds to entities or individuals. Some state grants may be awarded competitively while others may be awarded to any entity that meets certain criteria.” The memo highlights that competitive state grants involve management of three stages: pre-award, active grant, and closeout. LAB emphasized that many state agencies administer state grants, “However, no single state agency is responsible for the administration of all state grants.” The background memo highlights what the audit could evaluate:
- the statutory authority under which the state grant program operates
- the policies and procedures that a state agency followed when managing the state grant
- the extent to which a state agency consistently followed its policies and procedures and whether these policies and procedures were compliant with statutory and administrative rule requirements
- the amount of grant activity that occurred in recent years through the state grant, including the amounts awarded and expended
- the outcomes or results attained by the state grant as reflected in the agency’s documentation
- how a state agency implemented program integrity efforts
- the state agency’s costs to administer the state grant
- the extent to which a state agency has maintained sufficient and appropriate records to document its decisions in administering the state grant
- the extent to which an agency can improve its administration of state grants
In a release prior to the approval of the audits, co-chairs Sen. Eric Wimberger (R-Oconto) and Rep. Robert Wittke (R-Caledonia) said, the “audit will inspect how funding is utilized through the various grant programs overseen by departments within Wisconsin’s executive branch. This will include analyzing the history of these programs, the criteria and rigor needed for applicants, and the ultimate appropriations awarded under the programs. Many grant programs are written lacking specificity, affording agencies room to use funds for unintended purposes.” Both Wimberger and Wittke said the November election was about the people of Wisconsin wanting reform and oversight of government spending and the audit would “ensure these funds are being used for their intended purposes.”
GOAT Committee to Hold First Hearing
Rep. Amanda Nedweski (R-Pleasant Prairie) has scheduled the first informational hearing for the Assembly Committee on Government Operations, Accountability, and Transparency (GOAT) for Tuesday, March 11 in the Capitol. The Committee will hear from invited speakers only regarding the Legislative Audit Bureau reports 23-22: Telework, Space Management, and Risk Management: Department of Administration and 23-23: Telework, Space Management, and Risk Management: University of Wisconsin System. The invited speakers includes:
- Legislative Audit Bureau - Joe Chrisman, State Auditor
- Wisconsin Department of Administration - Secretary-designee Kathy Blumenfeld
- Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction - Dr. Jill Underly, State Superintendent
- Wisconsin Department of Health Services - Secretary-designee Kirsten Johnson
- Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services - Secretary-designee Dan Hereth
- University of Wisconsin System - Jay Rothman, Universities of Wisconsin President
- Tyler Marcus, CEO; Gradmor
- Bob Atwell, Founder; Nicolet National Bank
Right of First Refusal
The Right of First Refusal proposal (SB-028/AB-025), ROFR, was introduced in mid-February and a joint public hearing was held last week in the Capitol. The proposal “grants to an incumbent transmission facility owner the right to construct, own, and maintain a transmission facility that has been approved for construction in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator’s (MISO) transmission plan and that connects to transmission facilities owned by that incumbent transmission facility owner. Under the bill, an incumbent transmission facility owner includes a transmission company or transmission utility (a cooperative or public utility that owns a transmission facility and provides transmission service in this state), regardless of whether this state is its principal place of business or where it is organized or headquartered.” The proposal has come up in several sessions now, and it might be going to the floor in both houses in March. Leadership in both houses will have to use bipartisan votes to pass the proposal since neither house has enough votes to pass it solely using the majority party.
Federal Aid Freeze Proposal
A group of Assembly Democrats led by Rep. Christian Phelps (D-Eau Claire), Rep. Angelina Cruz (D-Racine), and Sen. Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee) are circulating a proposal which would allow the legislature to convene in an extraordinary session if an executive order of the President of the United States freezes federal aid to the state. According to the cosponsorship memo, “This bill, the Frozen Federal Funds Emergency Act, is a proactive, reasonable measure that ensures Wisconsin has a form of stopgap if federal aid is frozen due to an executive order. If such an order is issued, this legislation requires the Wisconsin Legislature to convene an extraordinary session to act swiftly and responsibly. Specifically, it authorizes temporary use of the state’s Budget Stabilization Fund (“rainy day fund”) to fill funding gaps for impacted state agencies, local governments, school districts, and nonprofit organizations that depend on federal resources. This ensures that some critical services can remain uninterrupted while awaiting the restoration of federal aid.”
The proposal analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau states:
This bill requires the legislature to convene an extraordinary session if the President of the United States issues an executive order under which federal aid to Wisconsin that was previously authorized under an act of Congress is frozen. The extraordinary session must be called for legislative consideration of a bill that does all of the following:
- Establishes a procedure to estimate the amounts of federal aid that each state agency, eligible local governmental unit, and eligible nonprofit organization is likely to be deprived of as a result of the executive order. Only those local governmental units and nonprofit organizations that receive federal moneys under a state appropriation qualify as eligible.
- Provides for payments from the budget stabilization fund to state agencies, eligible local governmental units, and eligible nonprofit organizations to offset estimated deprivation amounts.
- Prioritizes payments to offset deprivation amounts of federal aid that fund essential services.
- Limits payments to eligible local governmental units and eligible nonprofit organizations to no more than the amounts the eligible local governmental unit or eligible nonprofit organization would have received under a state appropriation of federal moneys but for the executive order.
- To the extent allowed under federal law, provides for reimbursement to the budget stabilization fund for the payments specified in item 2 whenever the state receives a back payment of federal aid moneys that were previously frozen by executive order of the President.
- Provides that if, in lieu of reimbursement to the budget stabilization fund, federal aid moneys received by the state as a back payment are paid to a state agency, eligible local governmental unit, or eligible nonprofit organization, the state agency, eligible local governmental unit, or eligible nonprofit organization must remit to the state for deposit in the budget stabilization fund an amount equal to the back payment amount received.
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