The bill creates the Office of Sustainability and Clean Energy in DOA to administer certain energy programs. The bill requires the Office of Sustainability and Clean Energy to work on initiatives with specified goals regarding clean and renewable energy, innovative sustainability, and diversification of energy resources and imposes duties on the office for advising, supporting, reporting, and assisting state agencies, local governments, and private entities on clean and renewable energy. The bill allows the Office of Sustainability and Clean Energy to provide technical assistance to governmental units and private entities. In addition, the bill requires the Office of Sustainability and Clean Energy to establish a program for making grants for clean energy production research. The bill also makes an appropriation for grants for clean energy production research.
Clean energy small business incubator
The bill creates a clean energy small business incubator that is operated by the Office of Sustainability and Clean Energy in DOA. The incubator is required to provide business development, mentorship, and expertise to small businesses with primary places of business in this state that operate in the clean energy sector. The bill also creates a grant program operated by the incubator to provide grants to small business start-ups that operate in the clean energy sector with a primary place of business in this state and requires the Office of Sustainability and Clean Energy to establish requirements for recipients of such grants. Finally, the bill creates a new GPR appropriation for the administration of the incubator and for grants to small business start-ups in the clean energy sector.
Chief equity officer
The bill creates the unclassified position of chief equity officer in DOA, which is assigned to executive salary group four.
Volkswagen settlement grants for mass transit systems
Under current law, for each county or municipality in which an urban mass transit system operates, and which receives a grant for the replacement of public transit vehicles under the Volkswagen settlement, DOA must reduce the shared revenue aid it provides to the county or municipality based on the amount of the grant under the Volkswagen settlement. For a county or municipality in which the urban mass transit system serves a population of 200,000 or more, the bill changes the reduction from 75 percent to 20 percent of the grant amount for grants awarded after the effective date of the bill.
Assistant secretary of state
2015 Wisconsin Act 55 eliminated the position of assistant secretary of state. The bill restores that position. The secretary of state may delegate any duty or power to the assistant secretary of state, except duties and powers the secretary of state performs as a member of the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands. Under current law, DFI’s general program operations are funded from an annual program revenue appropriation. From this appropriation, $150,000 is transferred annually to an appropriation to the secretary of state for general program operations. The bill increases the amount of the transfer to $260,000 annually.
Justice information systems funding
Under current law, DOA, in conjunction with the Public Defender Board, the director of state courts, DOC, DOJ, and district attorneys, is tasked with maintaining, promoting, and coordinating automated justice information systems that are compatible among counties and those officers and state agencies. Funding for the automated justice information systems comes from justice information fee receipts and penalty surcharge receipts. The bill creates a new GPR appropriation that will also fund the automated justice information systems.
Civil legal services for the indigent
The bill requires DOA to make annual payments to the Wisconsin Trust Account Foundation, Inc., for the purpose of providing civil legal services to indigent persons.
Public records location fee
Current law allows an authority to impose a fee on any person requesting a public record to cover the cost of locating that record, if the cost is $50 or more. The location fee may not exceed the actual, necessary, and direct cost of locating the record. Current law defines an “authority” to include any elective official or state or local government agency that has custody of a public record.
Under the bill, the cost of locating a public record must be $100 or more before an authority may impose a fee to cover the actual, necessary, and direct cost of locating the record.
TEACH program; GPR funding
Under current law, DOA administers the Technology for Educational Achievement program, known as TEACH. The TEACH program offers telecommunications access to school districts, private schools, cooperative educational service agencies, technical college districts, independent charter school authorizers, juvenile correctional facilities, private and tribal colleges, and public library boards at discounted rates. Currently, the TEACH program is funded from the universal service fund. The bill provides additional GPR for the TEACH program.
Online customer service hub
The bill makes a new appropriation to DOA to develop and maintain an online customer service hub.
Information technology infrastructure grant program
The bill repeals the obsolete information technology infrastructure grant program. DOA administered the grant program beginning in the 2017-18 fiscal year and ending in the 2020-21 fiscal year. Under the grant program, DOA awarded grants on a competitive basis to eligible school districts and to eligible public libraries for the purpose of improving information technology infrastructure. Current law prohibits DOA from awarding these grants after June 30, 2021.
State finance
Transfer to the capital improvement fund
The bill transfers $1,955,000,000 from the general fund to the capital improvement fund. The transferred moneys must be used in lieu of bonding to fund building projects authorized in the 2023-25 Authorized State Building Program.
Transfer to the budget stabilization fund
The bill transfers $500,000,000 from the general fund to the budget stabilization fund in fiscal year 2023-24.
Transfer to the artistic endowment fund
The bill transfers $100,000,000 in general purpose revenues from the general fund to the artistic endowment fund.
Transfer from capital planning and building construction services appropriation to the building trust fund
The bill transfers $18,000,000 from the capital planning and building construction services appropriation to the building trust fund in fiscal year 2023-24.
Required general fund statutory balance
Current statutes contain a rule of proceeding governing legislative action on certain bills. Generally, the rule provides that no bill directly or indirectly affecting general purpose revenues may be adopted if the bill would cause the estimated general fund balance on June 30 of any fiscal year to be less than a certain amount of the total GPR appropriations for that fiscal year. Beginning in fiscal year 2017-18, that amount has been equal to the prior fiscal year’s required statutory balance plus $5,000,000, but not to exceed 2 percent of total GPR appropriations for the fiscal year.
The bill provides that for fiscal year 2023-24 and each fiscal year thereafter, the amount is $600,000,000.
Refunding certain general obligation debt
The bill increases from $9,510,000,000 to $11,235,000,000 the amount of state public debt that may be contracted to refund any unpaid indebtedness used to finance tax-supported or self-amortizing facilities. The unpaid indebtedness includes unpaid premium and interest amounts. Under current law, the Building Commission may not incur public debt for refunding purposes unless the true interest costs to the state can be reduced.
National and community service board appropriation
Current law appropriates moneys received from the federal Corporation for National and Community Service to administer the national and community service program. The bill changes this continuing appropriation from one that is limited to the amounts in the schedule to one that is composed of all moneys received.
State employment
Additional biweekly payroll appropriations
Under current law, there are supplemental appropriations from general purpose revenue, program revenue, and segregated revenue to pay for salary and fringe benefits for permanent state employees, including permanent project employees, on the state’s biweekly payroll system in any fiscal year in which a 27th pay period occurs. The bill clarifies that the supplemental appropriations for salary and fringe benefits include permanent UW System employees, including permanent project employees, on the UW System biweekly payroll system.
Removal of salary caps for WHEDA employees
Current law allows WHEDA to employ an executive director and limits the compensation of the executive director and employees of WHEDA to the maximum of the salary range established for positions assigned to executive salary group six. The bill removes this limit on compensation of the executive director and staff of WHEDA.
Removal of salary caps for WHEFA employees
Current law allows WHEFA to employ an executive director and limits the compensation of the executive director to the maximum of the salary range established for positions assigned to executive salary group six. Current law also limits the compensation of each other employee of WHEFA to the maximum of the salary range established for positions assigned to executive salary group three. The bill removes these limits on compensation of the executive director and staff of WHEFA.
Paid family and medical leave
The bill requires the administrator of the Division of Personnel Management in DOA to develop a program for paid family and medical leave of 12 weeks annually for most state employees. The bill requires the administrator to submit the plan for approval as a change to the state compensation plan to the Joint Committee on Employment Relations. If JCOER approves the plan, the plan becomes effective immediately.
Paid sick leave for limited term employees
Under current law, permanent and project state employees receive the following paid leave: vacation, personal holidays, sick leave, and legal holidays. The bill requires the state to provide paid sick leave to limited term employees of the state at the same rate as to permanent and project state employees.
Vacation hours for state employees
The bill provides additional annual leave hours to state employees during their third, fourth, and fifth years of service.
Under current law, state employees who are in nonexempt status under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act earn annual leave at the rate of 104 hours per year of continuous service during the first five years of service and, on an employee’s fifth anniversary of continuous service, the rate increases to 144 hours of annual leave per year of continuous service. Under the bill, beginning on the employee’s second anniversary, a state employee in nonexempt status begins earning vacation hours at the rate of 120 hours per year of service.
Under current law, state employees who are in exempt status under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act earn annual vacation at the rate of 120 hours per year of continuous service during the first five years of service and, on the fifth anniversary of continuous service, the rate increases to 160 hours of annual leave per year of continuous service. Under the bill, beginning on the employee’s second anniversary, a state employee in exempt status begins earning vacation hours at the rate of 136 hours per year of service.
Pay progression caps; deputy and assistant district attorneys, assistant state public defenders, and assistant attorneys general
Under current law, there are pay progression plans for deputy and assistant district attorneys, assistant state public defenders, and assistant attorneys general. These pay progression plans consist of 17 hourly salary steps, with each step equal to one-seventeenth of the difference between the lowest hourly salary and the highest hourly salary for the salary range, and are based entirely on merit. However, current law caps the annual salary adjustment that a deputy or assistant district attorney, assistant state public defender, or assistant attorney general may receive under the respective pay progression plans to no more than 10 percent of the individual’s base pay.
Under the bill, the 10 percent cap on annual salary adjustments for deputy and assistant district attorneys, assistant state public defenders, and assistant attorneys general does not apply during the 2023-24 and 2024-25 fiscal years.
Juneteenth state holiday
The bill designates June 19, the day on which Juneteenth is celebrated, as a state holiday on which state offices are closed. Under current law, the offices of the agencies of state government are generally closed on Saturdays, Sundays, and a total of nine state holidays. The bill also requires the administrator of the Division of Personnel Management in DOA to include June 19 as a paid holiday for UW System employees in the proposal it submits to JCOER for compensation plan changes for the 2023-25 biennium.
Veterans Day state holiday
The bill designates November 11, the day on which Veterans Day is traditionally celebrated, as a state holiday on which state offices are closed. Under current law, the offices of the agencies of state government are generally closed on Saturdays, Sundays, and a total of nine state holidays. Additionally, under current law, state employees receive annually a total of 4.5 paid personal holidays, one of which is provided specifically in recognition of Veterans Day. Under the bill, state employees continue to receive 4.5 paid personal holidays. However, the bill removes the specification that one of the paid personal holidays is provided in recognition of Veterans Day.
In total, the bill increases the number of regular paid holidays state employees receive annually from nine days to 11 days.
Legislature
Legislative intervention in certain court proceedings
Current law provides that the legislature may intervene as a matter of right in an action in state or federal court when a party to the action does any of the following:
1. Challenges the constitutionality of a statute.
2. Challenges a statute as violating or being preempted by federal law.
3. Otherwise challenges the construction or validity of a statute.
Current law further provides that the legislature must be served with a copy of the proceedings in all such actions, regardless of whether the legislature intervenes in the action.
The bill repeals all of those provisions.
Retention of legal counsel by the legislature
Current law allows representatives to the assembly and senators, as well as legislative employees, to receive legal representation from DOJ in most legal proceedings. However, current law also provides all of the following:
1. With respect to the assembly, that the speaker of the assembly may authorize a representative to the assembly or assembly employee who requires legal representation to obtain outside legal counsel if the acts or allegations underlying the action are arguably within the scope of the representative’s or employee’s legislative duties, and the speaker may obtain outside legal counsel in any action in which the assembly is a party or in which the interests of the assembly are affected, as determined by the speaker.
2. With respect to the senate, that the senate majority leader may authorize a senator or senate employee who requires legal representation to obtain outside legal counsel if the acts or allegations underlying the action are arguably within the scope of the senator’s or employee’s legislative duties, and the majority leader may obtain outside legal counsel in any action in which the senate is a party or in which the interests of the senate are affected, as determined by the majority leader.
3. That the cochairpersons of the Joint Committee on Legislative Organization (JCLO) may authorize a legislative service agency employee who requires legal representation to obtain outside legal counsel if the acts or allegations underlying the action are arguably within the scope of the employee’s legislative duties, and the cochairpersons may obtain outside legal counsel in any action in which the legislature is a party or in which the interests of the legislature are affected, as determined by the cochairpersons.
The bill eliminates these provisions. Under the bill, representatives to the assembly and senators, as well as legislative employees, may continue to receive legal representation from DOJ in most legal proceedings.
Advice and consent of the senate
Under current law, any individual nominated by the governor or another state officer or agency subject to the advice and consent of the senate, whose confirmation for the office or position is rejected by the senate, may not do any of the following during the legislative session biennium in which his or her nomination is rejected:
1. Hold the office or position for which he or she was rejected.
2. Be nominated again for that office or position.
3. Perform any duties of that office or position.
The bill eliminates those restrictions.
Legislative Human Resources Office
The bill creates a Legislative Human Resources Office (LHRO), a nonpartisan legislative service agency, headed by a director. JCLO appoints the director and the director reports to JCLO. The director is assigned to executive salary group six, and the director and all LHRO staff hold positions in the unclassified service of the state civil service system. LHRO must perform all of the following duties:
1. Provide human resources services to the legislative branch, as directed by JCLO.
2. Establish a formal complaint process to review and investigate allegations of harassment, discrimination, retaliation, violence, or bullying by legislators, legislative employees, and legislative service agency employees. The office shall investigate all such allegations, unless the director designates another person or entity to review and investigate any specific allegation.
In addition, under the bill, the LHRO director must perform the following duties:
