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Budget Blog updates -- Thursday, April 30
4/30/2009

Due to a temporary technical issue with the WisPolitics Budget Blog, posts from the April 30-May 1 Joint Finance Committee hearing will appear on this page until further notice. Check back to this page and hit "refresh" on your browser to see the newest posts.
2:45 a.m.Good night Adjournment never sounded so good.

The JFC returns Tuesday. 11 a.m.?

-- By Greg Bump
2:28 a.m. Fox Cities RTA fails After approving two RTAs, the committee voted against approving an RTA for the Fox Cities region.

Five Dems voted with the four Republicans on the committee to defeat it: Sens. Miller, Hansen, Lehman, Lassa, and Taylor.



-- By Greg Bump
Fox Cities RTA fails 2:18 a.m. KRM authority passes, now on to Dane It passed 12-4. Now we're on the proposal for the Dane County RTA. A motion from Sen. Miller and Rep. Pocan make some modifications, including requiring a non-binding referendum on whether or not the RTA board should impose a 0.5 percent sales and use tax.

The motion also changes the make-up of the board. The nine member board will consist of two Madison metro residents appointed by the Dane Co. exec and approved by the county board; two members appointed by the mayor of Madison and approved by the common council; one member each from Fitchburg, Middleton and Sun Prairie appointed by their respective mayors and approved by common councils; one member appointed by the governor; one village member who resides within the RTA district appointed by the Dane County Cities and Villages Association.

The Dane County motion also passes 12-4.

-- By Greg Bump
2:11 a.m. Squabble over appointing authority An amendment from Rep. Vos to change the make-up of the KRM authority so the members are appointed by the Milwaukee and Racine executives instead of the board chairs of the respective counties failed 4-12.

Democrats who control the committee have made the appointments the purview of the board chairs to exclude the county executives in Milwaukee and Racine, who currently are Republicans Scott Walker in the former and Bill McReynolds in the latter.

A motion by Vos to exclude the area west of I-94 in Racine County from the KRM authority falied on a 4-12 vote.

-- By Greg Bump
1:53 a.m. Lehman: Each community gets to choose how it wants to fund transit Sen. Lehman said that the KRM piece was not the cause of the delay today as the JFC prepared to vote on the proposal to create the KRM authority.

He thanked Sen. Taylor and Rep. Colon for their work on the motion to create the authority using a rental car fee increase. This is in contrast to the governor's proposal which included creating a regional transit authority including Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha and paying for it with a sales tax.

Instead, a group of Milwaukee legislators chose to create their own RTA, and a separate authority paid for by a car rental tax increase is created to govern the Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee commuter rail line.

"What we're seeing now is the result of communites making it very clear what they wnat to do in their own sweet way about transit" Lehman said.

-- By Greg Bump
1:23 a.m. Racine, Kenosha removed from RTA under proposal A motion from three Milwaukee Dems, Sen. Taylor and Reps. Colon and Grigsby, would delete the governor's recommendation for a southeast Wisconsin Regional Transit Authority and replace it with a Milwaukee County Regional Transit Authority.

The motion gives the Milwaukee Co. RTA the authority to tax up to 1 percent sales and use taxes, with the equivalent of 15 percent of those revenues going to the City of Milwaukee.

The Milwaukee Co. RTA Board would be made up of two members appointed by the Milwaukee Co. board chair, two members appointed by the mayor of Milwaukeee, and a resident to be appointed by the governor. All the appointees must reside in the county.

The motion also specifies that revenues from the RTA's sales and use tax can be used to fund transit, parks, cultural, and emergecy medical service programs in Milwaukee Co. Milwaukee Co. will be the fiscal agent for the RTA.

The motion passed 11-5, with Dem Sen. John Lehman joining the four committee Republicans in voting against it.

A second motion, from Sens. Lehman and Taylor and Reps. Mason and Colon, would create a KRM Authority comprised of Kenosha, Racine and Milwaukee counties to create, construct and manage the KRM commuter rail line.

The KRM board would consist of: two appointments each from the Milwaukee Co. board chair and mayor of Milwaukee; one member each from the Racine mayor and Racine County board chair; one member each from the Kenosha County executive and one fro the mayor of Kenosha; and one member appointed by the governor.

The motion specifies that the KRM commuter rail line would have to include a stop where the line intersects with National Avenue in Milwaukee.

The KRM authority would be given the authority to impose a $16 per transaction vehicle rental fee. The fee would be indexed annually to the consumer price index. The indexed rate would be rounded to the next highest quarter-dollar amount.

The KRM board could authorize up to $50 million in bonds.

-- By Greg Bump
12:52 We're on transit Nearly 14 hours after the meeting was supposed to begin, we are on the topic most people were interested in today -- transit.

Rep. Grigsby and Sen. Taylor move to delete the provision in current law that a light rail system may not be built in Milwaukee County unless the county board authorizes the system's construction and has to be passed in a referendum. Rep. Vos blasts them for not wanting a referendum.

In fact, Vos said he will be preparing a motion to require any county that wants to build a rail system first pass a referendum.

Rep. Colon said Vos is anti-progress for cities.

"You really don't want to build our cities. You want to keep us in the dark ages," Colon said.

The Grigsby-Taylor motion passes 12-4, Dems yes, GOP no.

Vos does introduce the motion to require all counties in the state to pass a referendum in order to build light rail. It fails 4-12.

-- By Greg Bump
12:45 a.m. Nursing survey approved The committee approved spending $365,000 to require the Department of Workforce Development to develop a survey to evaluate nursing supply, demand and turnover and determine whether there are shortages in the field. The money to pay for the survey would come from a $4 surcharge to the current credential renewals for nurses.

It passed 15-1, with GOP Rep. Montgomery the only no vote.

Also passed was a six-page motion modifying the regulation of chiropractors. The motion was authored by Sen. Lehamand Rep. Colon. It passes unanimously.

-- By Greg Bump
12:28 a.m. Forward Wisconsin not moving forward Despite an effort from the Republicans to save it, the JFC voted to eliminate Forward Wisconsin, the state's marketing arm.

-- By Greg Bump
12:06 a.m. Lassa, Miller offer economic development motion Dem Sens. Lassa and Miller have a motion to put more cash into grants to help foster business innovation.

Among the provisions in their motion; provide $250,000 each year for innovation and research grants, including $100,000 for Small Business Innovation Research; require the Department of Commerce to make an annual grant of $60,000 from Wisconsin Venture Fund to the Wisconsin Angel Network; provide $250,000 in the first year of the budget to Commerce for grants to eligible businesses for "farm shoring."

In addition, it directs Commerce to award $100,000 in the biennium to develop a value supply chain for state-based regional economies to identify supply chain gaps, and figure out how to close the gaps.

Total fiscal impact of the bill is $366,800 GPR, $800,000 PR, and it adds 1.75 positions.

-- By Greg Bump
11:39 p.m. Vos wants Commerce to track at-risk companies Rep. Vos has introduced a motion to require the Department of Commerce to submit to JFC a reprot that includes retention methods the department could use to identify companies at risk of leaving Wisconsin.

Additionally, the department would be required to develop a plan to identify businesses outside Wisconsin who are looking to relocate, or who could be enticed here with incentives. Also, Vos' motion calls for an "emergency response team" that would "contact, meet, and negotiate with prospects for expansin or relocation within 24 hours."

Rep. Pocan called the motion "a good faith effort" but asked to set it aside for the time being so the language about the 24-hour response team can be re-worked.

-- By Greg Bump
11:26 p.m. Film tax credit passes unanimously The motion to overturn Gov. Doyle's plan to eliminate the film tax credit passed with bipartisan support.

The motion does tighten up some of the loopholes in the current system.

The motion creates refundable film production services tax credts equal to 25 percent of salaries to Wisconsin residents working on a production in Wisconsin; 20 percent of salaries to non-residents up to a max of $20,000 per worker, but it excludes the salary of any worker making more than $250,000.

Also it creates credits for up to 25 percent of nonlabor expenses incurred in Wisconsin as long as 35 percent of the film's total budget is spent in Wisconsin. The amount of credits under this provision would be limited to a max of $10 million.

-- By Greg Bump
11:16 p.m. Now we're in Commerce The governor's recommendation for the Wisconsin Venture Fund (budget paper 250) was adopted.

Now we are awaiting Rep. Grigsby's motion on the film tax credit program.

Grigsby's motion would remove Doyle's provision to eliminate the tax credit program and his plan for a $470,000 grant program.

Instead, it will cost $2.5 million per year, about $2.4 million less than the current law. And it is projected to increase income and franchise tax revenues by $1 million each year.

Grigsby said during public hearings on the budget, the committee consistently heard support for the program.

"The program has stimuluated local economies, resulted in job growth and stimulated the tourism industry," she said.

-- By Greg Bump
10:52 p.m. Twelve hours An announcement was just made that the meeting will begin at 11 p.m. It was scheduled to start at 11 a.m.

UPDATE: The transportation items, which most everyone in the room have been waiting for all day, have been moved to the end of the calendar. They're starting with Children and Families -- Child Support.

The Department of Children and Families stuff passes quickly. All votes unanimous, including a standalone motion from Sen. Taylor to require DCF to offer custodial parents the option to receive free of charge paper statements of child support accounts any time a deposit or withdrawal is made to the account.

-- By Greg Bump



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