State Legislative Update

Posted on February 29, 2016 by admin

LarsonBrostoffAt our last MHNA meeting Senator Larson and Representative Brostoff summarized legislative actions in the recent session. They have provided the following additional information.

GOP Bills of Interest

AB – 568: Landlord Bill / Historical District Restrictions – Passed Assembly and Senate, Presented to Governor Walker for Signing (Passed on party lines, Democrats opposed / Republicans in Favor)

Click here for a full breakdown of the passed bill.

AB – 373: Civil Service Reform – Passed Assembly and Senate, Singed by Governor Walker (Passed on party lines, Democrats opposed / Republicans in Favor)

  • Eliminates the civil service exam
  • Eliminates job applicant exams
  • Centralizes hiring decisions within the governor’s administration, which gives more power to the top
  • Disregards job protection for seniors during times of layoffs
  • Expected to affect 30,000 people

o   UW System and Local Municipalities not affected

AB – 885: Milwaukee County Debt Takeover – Currently sitting in the Senate Committee on Revenue, Financial Institutions, and Rural Issues

  • Dangerous because it gives the County Executive, rather than the county board, the power to make decisions on debt collection
  • Puts unfair burden on people already struggling with debt
  • Traps our county in an inefficient program could turn out to be more expensive than the current system of debt collection.
  • Concentrates power into the hands of the County Executive
  • Milwaukee’s County Comptroller, County Treasurer and County Clerk of Courts, are opposed to it.  They are the three elected county officials that deal with unpaid debt.

Sen. Larson & Rep. Brostoff Bills

SB – 755:  MPS Takeover Repeal

  • Repeals all 3 Opportunity School Partnership Programs targeting MPS
  • Stops the takeover and ultimate privatization of MPS
  • Re-establishes local control by putting MPS back under the authority of the democratically elected school board

SB – 700:  Save Our Water Act

  • Prohibits municipalities from selling or leasing water or sewer services to investor owned utilities
  • The recent tragedy in Flint, Michigan is a stark reminder that local control of public water is essential to safeguarding the water we drink.
  • Wisconsin drinking water has historically been provided by local water utilities that are accountable to the community and state.
  • In response to Republican-backed corporate giveaway AB 554

o   Here is what you need to know about this bill:

  • It would force people to gather signatures to reject water take-overs.
  • It would set thresholds for signatures needed and limit the time allowed to gather them
  • If the public manages to get a referendum, it would have to happen before the Public Service Commission has a chance to provide the details of the take-over.
  • It broadens the types of companies that can gobble up Wisconsin waters

SB – 722:  County Parkland & Heritage Protection Act

  • The 2015-17 budget radically and undemocratically stripped away important checks and balances in Milwaukee County, jeopardizing parklands and culturally significant properties by denying the Milwaukee County Board the ability to reject land sales.
  • This bill requires that the county executive’s actions to sell or lease certain property must be consistent with county board policy and must be approved by the board before the actions may take effect.
  • In addition to economic and culturally significant properties like the County’s General Mitchell International Airport, Milwaukee Public Museum, and the Milwaukee County Zoo, the law now grants the Milwaukee County executive the power to sell-off thousands of acres of parklands without board approval.
  • Under current law the county executive is empowered to engage in such land transaction in a way that does not need to be consistent with county board policy and could take effect without county board approval.

LRB – 4462:  Increasing Access to CPD Oil

  • This bill eliminates the requirement that, to be excluded from the definition of THC, the CBD oil must be dispensed by an approved pharmacy or physician or possessed by an individual with such documentation.

o   Establishing a licensure program, administered by the Department of Safety and Professional Services for individuals to produce and distribute CBD oil

o   Allowing a person who holds a license to manufacture CBD oil to possess tetrahydrocannabinols, so long as it is only going to be used to produce non-psychoactive CBD oil

o   Clarifying that any individual with the appropriate license may distribute CBD oil and any individual may possess CBD oil

SB – 216:  Investing in Special Needs Education

  • State aid that supports the education of students with disabilities remains frozen in the 2015-17 budget

o   Funding for special education categorical aid is frozen at the level set in the 2008-09 school year.

  • The bill will bring us back to reimbursing school districts at 33%
  • The bill gives school districts the tools and flexibility they need to keep up with the cost of inflation, which can be achieved by allowing them the ability to increase their levy limit.
  • 20% of MPS students have some form of special needs education requirements

SB – 277:  Strengthening Wisconsin’s Rate Review

It is more expensive to be healthy in Wisconsin than in most other states. According to a report by Citizen Action of Wisconsin, Wisconsinites may be paying up to $1000 more per year for health insurance than their neighbors in Minnesota. This is due to our failure to strengthen our consumer protections and accept federal funding to expand Medicaid. Our friends, family, and neighbors deserve elected officials who support policies that protect their hard-earned money. This bill will take a step towards addressing the rising cost of health care premiums by strengthening our “rate review” process.

  • Our bill would do the following to create a more rigorous rate review process in Wisconsin:

o   Require insurers give consumers at least 60 days’ notice of rate increases

o   Require OCI hold a public hearing rate increases of over 10%

o   Grant OCI the power to deny insurance rate increases that are not justified by underlying medical cost

o   Make sure rate review applies to all markets – individual, small group and large group

o   Publish all rate increases of health insurers publicly, even those under 10%

o   Require “prior authorization” before allowing rates to increase. Insurers would need to submit rates for approval by OCI and would be unable to implement the increases without approval

o   Require insurers that used increased medical costs as justification for increased premiums to make publicly available their negotiated rates with each provider system

Body Cameras – Body Camera Transparency and Accountability Act

  • Does not require law enforcement agencies to use body cameras
  • Prohibits the use of body cameras in non-emergency situations, in elementary or secondary schools, in-patient care areas of hospitals, or other areas where individuals have a substantial expectation of privacy
  • Addresses issues surrounding transparency of body camera usage as well as privacy and public records issues, but also recognizes that as this issue becomes more and more prevalent, we must ensure an ongoing dialogue
  • Specifies that, following an officer-involved death, the officers’ supervisor takes physical custody of the body camera and download the data
  • Requires that law enforcement officers utilizing body cameras to tell individuals that they are being recorded