The bill eliminates the reporting requirement relating to those expired field prosecutor attorney project positions.
Law enforcement officer training reimbursement
The bill makes a technical change relating to the appropriations from which reimbursements for law enforcement officer training are paid.
Relator appropriation
The bill creates a continuing appropriation to hold all moneys received by DOJ that is owed to a relator, to provide payments to relators. A relator is a type of party in a legal action in whose name an action is brought by a state.
Gifts and grants and disposition of settlement funds
The bill repeals certain changes made by 2017 Wisconsin Act 369 relating to gifts and grants and certain proceeds received by DOJ, specifically reversing provisions that changed a DOJ gifts and grants appropriation and a DOJ gifts, grants, and proceeds appropriation from continuing appropriations to annual appropriations. The bill also repeals the requirement that the attorney general must deposit all settlement funds into the general fund. The bill restores procedures relating to discretionary settlement funds under which the attorney general could expend certain settlement funds not committed under the terms of a settlement after submitting a plan to JCF for passive review only if either 1) the cochairpersons of JCF do not schedule a meeting or 2) a meeting is scheduled and JCF approves a plan for expenditure.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
General local government
Local landlord-tenant ordinances
Current law prohibits political subdivisions from enacting certain ordinances relating to landlords and tenants. Political subdivisions may not do any of the following:
1. Prohibit or limit landlords from obtaining or using certain information relating to a tenant or prospective tenant, including monthly household income, occupation, rental history, credit information, court records, and social security numbers.
2. Limit how far back in time a landlord may look at a prospective tenant’s credit information, conviction record, or previous housing.
3. Prohibit or limit a landlord from entering into a rental agreement with a prospective tenant while the premises are occupied by a current tenant.
4. Prohibit or limit a landlord from showing a premises to a prospective tenant during a current tenant’s tenancy.
5. Place requirements on a landlord with respect to security deposits or earnest money or inspections that are in addition to what is required under administrative rules.
6. Limit a tenant’s responsibility for any damage to or neglect of the premises.
7. Require a landlord to provide to tenants or to the political subdivision any information that is not required to be provided under federal or state law.
8. Require a residential property to be inspected except under certain circumstances.
9. Impose an occupancy or transfer of tenancy fee on a rental unit.
Current law also prohibits political subdivisions from regulating rent abatement in a way that permits abatement for conditions other than those that materially affect the health or safety of the tenant or that substantially affect the use and occupancy of the premises. The bill eliminates all of these prohibitions.
Local moratorium on evictions
Current law prohibits political subdivisions from imposing a moratorium on landlords from pursuing eviction actions against a tenant. The bill eliminates that prohibition.
Rental property inspection requirements
The bill makes various changes to the requirements relating to inspections of rental properties. The bill eliminates existing limitations on inspection fees that political subdivisions may charge for rental property inspections. Under the bill, a landlord must provide notice to a tenant of an impending inspection in the same manner the landlord would provide notice under current law to enter for repairs or to show the property to prospective tenants. The bill also provides that rental property inspection fees charged by a political subdivision are not subject to deduction from the political subdivision’s tax levy.
Local government civil service system and grievance procedure requirements
The bill modifies the requirements for any grievance system established by local governmental units, including adding a requirement for any civil service system or grievance procedure to include a just cause standard of review for employee terminations. Under current law, a local governmental unit that did not have a civil service system before June 29, 2011, must have established a grievance system. In order to comply with the requirement to have established a grievance system, a local governmental unit may establish either 1) a civil service system under any provision authorized by law, to the greatest extent practicable, if no specific provision for creation of a civil service system applies to the governmental unit or 2) a grievance procedure as set forth in the statutes. Current law requires that any civil service system established or grievance procedure created must contain a grievance procedure that addresses employee terminations, employee discipline, and workplace safety. The bill does not eliminate the requirement for these provisions but instead adds a requirement for a provision relating to a just cause standard of review for employee terminations, including a refusal to renew a teaching contract.
Current law also requires that if a local governmental unit creates a grievance procedure, the procedure must contain certain elements, including a written document specifying the process that a grievant and an employer must follow; a hearing before an impartial hearing officer; and an appeal process in which the highest level of appeal is the governing body of the local governmental unit. The bill provides that the hearing officer must be from the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission and adds the following two additional required elements in the grievance procedure: 1) a provision indicating the grievant is entitled to representation throughout the grievance process and 2) a provision indicating that the employer must bear all fees and costs related to the grievance process, except the grievant’s representational fees and costs.
Local employment regulations
The bill eliminates the preemptions of local governments from enacting or enforcing ordinances related to the following:
1. Regulations related to wage claims and collections.
2. Regulation of employee hours and overtime, including scheduling of employee work hours or shifts.
3. The employment benefits an employer may be required to provide to its employees.
4. An employer’s right to solicit information regarding the salary history of prospective employees.
5. Regulations related to minimum wage.
6. Occupational licensing requirements that are more stringent than a state requirement.
Certain state and local employment regulations
The bill eliminates the following:
1. The prohibition of the state and local governments from requiring any person to waive the person’s rights under state or federal labor laws as a condition of any approval by the state or local government.
2. A provision under which neither the state nor a local government may enact a statute or ordinance, adopt a policy or regulation, or impose a contract, zoning, permitting, or licensing requirement, or any other condition, that would require any person to accept any provision that is a subject of collective bargaining under state labor laws or the federal National Labor Relations Act.
Project labor agreements
Under current law, the state and local units of government are prohibited from engaging in certain practices in letting bids for state procurement or public works contracts. Among these prohibitions, the state and local governments may not do any of the following in specifications for bids for the contracts: 1) require that a bidder enter into an agreement with a labor organization; 2) consider, when awarding a contract, whether a bidder has or has not entered into an agreement with a labor organization; or 3) require that a bidder enter into an agreement that requires that the bidder or bidder’s employees become or remain members of a labor organization or pay any dues or fees to a labor organization. The bill eliminates these limitations related to labor organizations.
Exception to local law enforcement officer citizenship requirement
Under current law, no person may be appointed as a deputy sheriff of any county or police officer of any city, village, or town unless that person is a citizen of the United States. The bill allows the sheriff of a county or the appointing authority of a local law enforcement agency to elect to authorize the appointment of noncitizens who are in receipt of valid employment authorization from the federal Department of Homeland Security as deputy sheriffs or police officers. The bill also prevents the Law Enforcement Standards Board from preventing such a noncitizen from participating in a law enforcement preparatory training program.
Register of deeds recording fees; land information program
The bill increases the general recording and filing fees charged by county registers of deeds, increases the amount of the fees that counties must submit to DOA for the land information program, and increases the minimum grant amount DOA may award to counties for education and training grants under the program.
Under current law, DOA directs and supervises the land information program and serves as a state clearinghouse for access to land information. Under the land information program, DOA provides technical assistance to state agencies and local governmental units with land information responsibilities, reviews and approves county plans for land records modernization, and provides aids to counties, derived from recording fee revenues collected by counties, for land records modernization projects.
Under current law, counties collect fees for recording or filing instruments that are recorded or filed with a register of deeds. Currently, the general fee for recording or filing an instrument is $30. Currently, a county must submit $15 of each $30 recording fee to DOA for the land information program, but the county may retain $8 of the amount it would have been required to submit to DOA if the county meets certain requirements, including establishing a land information office and council and using the retained fees to develop, implement, and maintain a DOA-approved countywide plan for land records modernization on the Internet.
The bill increases from $30 to $45 the general recording and filing fee. The bill also increases from $15 to $30 the amount of each fee that a county must submit to DOA and increases from $8 to $15 the amount the county may retain if the current law requirements are met.
Under current law, DOA awards land information system base budget grants to counties to enable county land information offices to develop, maintain, and operate basic land information systems. Currently, the minimum amount of a grant is $100,000 less the amount of certain fees retained by the county in the preceding fiscal year. The bill increases that base amount to $140,000 less the retained fees.
Under current law, DOA may award a grant under the land information program to any county in an amount not less than $1,000 per year to be used for the training and education of county employees for the design, development, and implementation of a land information system. The bill increases from $1,000 to $5,0000 the minimum training and education grant amount.
Municipal records filings and filing requirements for certain annexations
The bill transfers the duty of filing certain municipal records from the secretary of state to the secretary of administration and transfers certain records held by the secretary of state to instead be held by DOA. 2015 Wisconsin Act 55 transferred some, but not all, municipal records filing duties from the secretary of state to DOA. The bill completes the transfer of these duties from the secretary of state to DOA for all municipal filing categories. The bill also replaces the term “plat” with the term “scale map” in certain filing statutes to conform with existing statutory requirements for certain filings, including petitions for incorporation and for annexation. The bill reduces the number of copies that must be provided to DOA in certain circumstances from multiple copies to just one copy. The bill also requires that certain boundary agreements between municipalities be filed and recorded with the register of deeds if an enacting ordinance is not anticipated to be enacted within 30 days.
Local advisory referenda
Under current law, a county may not conduct a countywide advisory referendum unless it regards a political subdivision revenue sharing agreement or capital expenditures proposed to be funded by the county property tax levy. In addition, current law prohibits a municipality from conducting an advisory referendum unless it regards tax incremental financing, a local government telecommunications utility, or capital expenditures proposed to be funded by the municipality’s property tax levy.
The bill eliminates these restrictions and specifically authorizes a county to conduct referenda for advisory purposes.
Provision and funding of emergency medical services by towns
The bill authorizes a town to contract for or maintain emergency medical services for the town. The bill also authorizes a town to do any of the following for the purpose of funding these emergency medical services:
1. Appropriate money.
2. Charge property owners a fee for the cost of emergency medical services provided to their property according to a written schedule established by the town board.
3. Levy taxes on the entire town.
4. Levy taxes on property served by a particular source of emergency medical services, to support the source of emergency medical services.
Levy limits
Levy limits under current law
Generally, under current law, local levy increase limits are applied to the property tax levies that are imposed by a political subdivision in December of each year. Current law prohibits any political subdivision from increasing its levy by a percentage that exceeds its valuation factor. “Valuation factor” is defined as the greater of either 0 percent or, in general, the percentage change in the political subdivision’s equalized value due to new construction, less improvements removed.
Current law contains a number of exceptions to the local levy limits, such as amounts a county levies for a countywide emergency medical system, for a county children with disabilities education board, and for certain bridge and culvert construction and repair. In addition, a political subdivision may exceed the levy increase limit that is otherwise applicable if its governing body adopts a resolution to do so and if that resolution is approved by the electors in a referendum.
Levy limit reduction for service transfers
Under current law, if a political subdivision transfers to another governmental unit the responsibility to provide a service that it provided in the previous year, the levy increase limit otherwise applicable in the current year is decreased to reflect the cost that the political subdivision would have incurred to provide that service. The bill eliminates that provision.
Joint emergency services levy limit exception modification
Among the current law exceptions to local levy limits is an exception for the amount that a municipality levies to pay for charges assessed by a joint fire department or joint emergency medical services district organized by any combination of two or more municipalities. This exception applies only to the extent that the amount levied to pay for such charges would cause the municipality to exceed the otherwise applicable levy limit and only if the charges assessed by the joint fire department or joint emergency medical services district increase in the current year by an amount not greater than the rate of inflation over the preceding year, plus 2 percent, and if the municipality’s governing body adopts a resolution in favor of exceeding the otherwise applicable levy limit.
Under the bill, the exception is expanded to include joint fire services or joint emergency medical services provided by a combination of two or more municipalities through a joint district, joint ownership, joint purchase of services from a nonprofit corporation, or joint contracting with a public or private services provider. The exception is also expanded to cover all fees charged to a municipality by the joint fire services or joint emergency medical services.
Levy limit exclusion for cross-municipality transit routes
Under the bill, amounts levied by a political subdivision for costs related to new or enhanced transit services that cross adjacent county or municipal borders do not apply to the local levy limits if the political subdivisions between which the routes operate have entered into an agreement to provide for the services and if the agreement is approved in a referendum.
Levy limit exception for regional planning commission contributions
The bill creates a local levy increase limit exception for the amount a political subdivision levies to pay for the political subdivision’s share of the budget of a regional planning commission (RPC). An RPC’s budget is determined annually by the RPC. The RPC then charges all political subdivisions within its jurisdiction a proportional amount to fund the budget based on the equalized value of property in the political subdivision and the total amount of equalized value of property within the RPC’s jurisdiction.
Tax incremental financing
Tax incremental financing under current law
Under current law, cities and villages may use tax incremental financing (TIF) to encourage development in the city or village. In general, under TIF, a city or village pays for improvements in a tax incremental district (TID) and then collects tax moneys attributable to all taxing jurisdictions on the increased property value in the TID for a certain period of time to pay for the improvements. Ideally, after the period of time, the city or village will have been repaid for its initial investment, and the property tax base in the TID will have permanently increased in value.
In general and in brief, a city or village makes use of TIF using the following procedure:
1. The city or village designates an area as a TID and creates a project plan laying out the expenditures that the city or village will make within the TID.
2. DOR establishes the “base value” of the TID. This value is the equalized value of all taxable property within the TID at the time of its creation.
3. Each year thereafter, the “value increment” of the property within the TID is determined by subtracting the base value from the current value of property within the TID. The portion of taxes collected on any positive value increment is collected by the city or village for use solely for the project costs of the TID. The taxes collected by the city or village on positive value increments include taxes that would have been collected by other taxing jurisdictions, such as counties or school districts, were the TID not created.
4. Tax increments are collected until the city or village has recovered all of its project costs or until the TID reaches its statutory termination date.
Workforce housing initiatives
The bill authorizes workforce housing initiatives and makes changes that affect TIDs and state housing grants. The bill creates a definition for “workforce housing,” changes the definition of a “mixed-use development” TID, requires a TID’s project plan to contain alternative economic projections, and changes the method of imposing certain impact fees.
Under the bill, a political subdivision may put into effect a workforce housing initiative by taking one of several specified actions and posting on its website an explanation of the initiative. Workforce housing initiatives include the following: reducing permit processing times or impact fees for workforce housing; increasing zoning density for a workforce housing development; rehabilitating existing uninhabitable housing stock into habitable workforce housing; or implementing any other initiative to address workforce housing needs. Once an initiative takes effect, it remains in effect for five years. After June 30, 2026, if a political subdivision has in effect at least three initiatives at the same time, DOA must give priority to housing grant applications from, or related to a project in, the political subdivision.
The bill defines “workforce housing” to mean both of the following, subject to the five-year average median costs as determined by the U.S. Bureau of the Census:
