4. A grant of up to $860,000 to assist the Colfax Railroad Museum, Inc., in constructing and renovating museum facilities in the village of Colfax to protect and display historical railroad artifacts.
5. A grant of up to $3,000,000 to assist the city of Green Bay in the construction and development of a public market.
6. A grant of up to $4,250,000 to assist the city of Glendale in the construction of a new library that will serve the communities of Bayside, Fox Point, Glendale, and River Hills, as well as all of Milwaukee County through the Milwaukee County Federated Library System.
7. A grant of up to $2,000,000 to a nonstate organization or a city, village, town, or county for the purchase, construction, or renovation of a child care center in the southwest region of the state.
8. A grant of up to $2,500,000 to assist Wellpoint Care Network, Inc., in renovating an existing facility in the city of Milwaukee to establish a child care center.
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.
Vacancies in certain appointive offices
Under current law, vacancies in public office may occur in a number of ways, including when the incumbent resigns, dies, or is removed from office, or, in the case of elected office, when the incumbent’s term expires. However, as the Wisconsin Supreme Court held in State ex rel. Kaul v. Prehn, 2022 WI 50, expiration of an incumbent’s term of office does not create a vacancy if the office is filled by appointment for a fixed term. Absent a vacancy or removal for cause, these incumbents may remain in office until their successors are appointed and qualified.
Under the bill, a vacancy in public office is created if the office is filled by appointment of the governor by and with the advice and consent of the senate for a fixed term and the incumbent’s term expires or the governor submits his or her nomination for the office to the senate, whichever is later.
Office of Violence Prevention
The bill creates the Office of Violence Prevention in DOA, establishes certain duties with respect to the office, and directs the office to award grants for community violence intervention. The bill provides that the office must coordinate and expand violence prevention activities and work to reduce the incidences of interpersonal violence. To achieve these goals, the office must do all of the following:
1. Establish a violence prevention focus across state government.
2. Collaborate with other state agencies that are interested or active in the reduction of interpersonal violence.
3. Support the development and implementation of comprehensive, community-based violence prevention initiatives within local units of government across the state, including collaborating with law enforcement agencies.
4. Develop sources of funding beyond state revenues to maintain the office and expand its activities.
5. Create a directory of existing violence prevention services and activities in each county.
6. Support and provide technical assistance to local organizations that provide violence prevention services, including in seeking out and applying for grant funding in support of their initiatives.
7. Develop public education campaigns to promote safer communities.
The bill directs the office to establish and implement a program to award grants to support effective violence reduction initiatives in communities across the state. Up to $3,000,000 of the grants must be awarded to federally recognized American Indian tribes or bands in this state or organizations affiliated with tribes relating to missing and murdered indigenous women. The bill also requires that up to $500,000 be awarded for grants related to suicide prevention for the following activities: 1) to train staff at a firearm retailer or firearm range on how to recognize a person who may be considering suicide; 2) to provide suicide prevention materials for distribution at a firearm retailer or firearm range; and 3) to provide voluntary, temporary firearm storage.
Task force on Missing and Murdered African American Women and Girls
The bill creates the Task Force on Missing and Murdered African American Women and Girls. The task force must examine various factors that contribute to violence against African American women and girls and submit to the governor two annual reports by December 31, 2026, on actions that can be taken to eliminate violence against African American women and girls.
Director of Native American affairs
The bill requires the secretary of administration to appoint a director of Native American affairs in the unclassified service to manage relations between the state and American Indian tribes or bands in the state.
Grants to each American Indian tribe or band in Wisconsin
The bill requires DOA to award grants of equal amounts to each American Indian tribe or band in the state for the following purposes:
1. To programs to meet the needs of members of the tribe or band.
2. To promote tribal language and cultural revitalization.
Under the bill, no grant moneys awarded under the above grant programs may be used to pay gaming-related expenses.
Other tribal grants
The bill requires DOA to do all of the following:
1. Award grants to the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin to support the Menominee Indian Tribe’s transit services, in an amount not to exceed $266,600 annually.
2. Award grants to the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin to conduct an intergovernmental training program, available to all tribal governments in Wisconsin, to improve consultations and communication between the tribes and the state. The grants may not total more than $60,000 annually.
3. Award grants to the Wisconsin Indigenous Housing and Economic Development Corporation to support tribal economic development and housing programs in Wisconsin. The grants may not total more than $3,890,000 in the 2025-26 fiscal year and $2,540,000 annually thereafter.
4. Award grants to American Indian tribes or bands in this state to support strategic planning concerning cybersecurity, in an amount up to $250,000 annually.
5. Award grants to American Indian tribes or bands in this state to support home repairs that reduce energy burdens and improve health outcomes, in an amount up to $1,000,000 annually.
Community climate engagement grant program
The bill requires DOA to establish and administer a community climate engagement grant program. Under the program, DOA is required to award grants to local nongovernmental organizations in Wisconsin for the purpose of promoting local climate and clean energy community engagement. Additionally, under the program, DOA is itself required to conduct and support outreach across Wisconsin concerning climate change, climate resilience, and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
Community climate action grants
The bill requires DOA to create a grant program to assist local governmental units and governing bodies of federally recognized American Indian tribes and bands in this state with the development of climate risk assessment and action plans or to implement emission reduction and action projects. Under the bill, DOA is required to assist local governments and tribal governments with the development of climate risk assessment and action plans.
Grants to provide civil legal services
The bill requires DOA to award grants to the Wisconsin Trust Account Foundation, Inc., for the purpose of providing civil legal services.
Translation services
The bill provides that DOA may provide assistance to state agencies for costs related to translation services that are provided to a state agency through a state contract. The bill also appropriates GPR for the purpose.
Artificial intelligence tools and infrastructure support
The bill requires DOA to develop and maintain artificial intelligence tools and infrastructure for the benefit of state agencies, including the legislature and the courts.
Cybersecurity
Under current law, DOA is required to ensure that an adequate level of information technology services is made available to state agencies. The bill requires that DOA additionally conduct cybersecurity emergency incident response for state agencies. The bill funds those activities with up to $10,000,000 each fiscal year in moneys from the general fund that are allocated to sum sufficient appropriations of state agencies. A sum sufficient appropriation is expendable in the amounts necessary to accomplish the purpose specified in the appropriation.
The bill also creates an annual appropriation of GPR for DOA’s cybersecurity activities generally.
Cybersecurity insurance
The bill requires DOA to undertake planning and preparation to have a cybersecurity insurance program for executive branch agencies by the 2027–29 fiscal biennium.
Closed meetings to consider information technology security issues
Under current law, a governmental body is generally required to meet in open session. Open session is a meeting that is held in a place reasonably accessible to members of the public and open to all citizens at all times.
The bill allows a governmental body to go into closed session for the purpose of considering information technology security issues affecting information technology systems over which the governmental body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility.
Funding for the Division of Alcohol Beverages
The bill creates a program-revenue appropriation to fund the Division of Alcohol Beverages (DAB) in DOR.
Under current law, the DAB administers and enforces the state’s alcohol beverage laws, including issuing alcohol beverage permits. The DAB is currently funded from multiple DOR appropriations, including an appropriation that receives proceeds from an administrative fee of 11 cents per gallon on taxed distilled spirits.
The bill creates, for DAB, a single PR appropriation consisting of DAB permit fees and associated administrative fees and liquor tax administrative fees.
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.
Lobbying fees
Under current law, fees paid to the Ethics Commission for lobbying activities are appropriated to the commission for the administration of the lobbying laws. The bill eliminates that appropriation and requires that all fees paid to the commission for lobbying activities be deposited in the general fund.
First class city school district audit response funding
The bill directs DOA to provide payments to a first class city school district (currently only Milwaukee Public Schools) to implement recommendations from audits of the school district initiated by the governor. The payments may be used for items addressed in the audits, financial reporting software, and data compatibility with state and local finance systems. Additionally, the payments may be made only if, at the time of payment, the secretary of administration is satisfied that the school district is already making substantial progress on implementation of the audit recommendations.
TEACH program; GPR funding
Under current law, DOA administers the Technology for Educational Achievement (TEACH) program. 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.
TEACH; broadband speed threshold
As part of TEACH, current law requires DOA to establish an educational telecommunications access program to provide educational agencies with access to data lines. Under current law, DOA must require an educational agency to pay not more than $250 per month for each data line provided under the program. However, the maximum amount DOA may charge an educational agency for a data line is not more than $100 per month if the data line relies on a transport medium that operates at a speed of 1.544 megabits per second. The bill increases the threshold speed for the $100 per month maximum payment to 100 megabits per second.
State AmeriCorps scholarship program
Under current law, an individual who completes a term of service in the AmeriCorps program may receive a Segal AmeriCorps education award to pay for post-secondary educational expenses. The bill creates a program that provides a matching scholarship to individuals who are residents of Wisconsin or who complete their AmeriCorps service in Wisconsin. Under the bill, the matching amounts are subject to availability of monies. The scholarship money awarded under the program may only be used to pay tuition and fees at a technical college, college, or university in Wisconsin.
National and community service board appropriation
Current law appropriates moneys received from the federal Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) to administer the national and community service program and to provide grants for the national and community service program. The bill changes the appropriation for administration from one that is limited to the amounts in the schedule to one that appropriates all moneys received that are designated for administration by the CNCS. The bill also clarifies that the appropriation for grants appropriates all moneys received that are designated for grants by the CNCS.
BCPL payments in lieu of taxes appropriation
Under current law, land that the BCPL owns is not subject to property taxes. For certain lands purchased on or after July 14, 2015, though, BCPL makes annual payments to municipalities in lieu of the property tax that would have been owed on these lands were they not tax exempt. Currently, the source of these payments is a sum certain appropriation. The bill changes that appropriation to a sum sufficient appropriation.
Security services at multitenant state buildings and facilities
The bill eliminates the separate appropriation for security services at multitenant state buildings and facilities and moves the related purposes of the appropriation to a different appropriation.
State finance
Refunding certain general obligation debt
The bill increases from $11,235,000,000 to $12,835,000,000 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.
State employment
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 8 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 (JCOER). If JCOER approves the plan, the plan becomes effective January 1, 2027.
The bill also requires the Board of Regents of the UW System to develop a plan for a program for paid family and medical leave of 8 weeks annually for employees of the system and requires the board to submit the plan to the administrator of the Division of Personnel Management in DOA with its compensation plan changes for the 2025-27 biennium. If JCOER approves the plan, the program becomes effective January 1, 2027.
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.
The bill also requires the Board of Regents of the UW System to develop a plan for a program for paid sick leave for temporary employees of the system and requires the board to submit the plan to the administrator of the Division of Personnel Management in DOA with its compensation plan changes for the 2025–27 fiscal biennium.
Green Bay Correctional Institution
The bill allows the director of the Bureau of Merit Recruitment and Selection in the Division of Personnel Management in DOA to waive competitive hiring procedures for an employee in the classified service at the Green Bay Correctional Institution (GBCI) during the period the facility is decommissioned if the individual is qualified to perform the duties of the position and the position the individual will be filling is assigned to a class at a pay range that is the same as individual’s position at GBCI, or a lower pay range.
