Analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau

This bill requires a political subdivision (a city, village, town, or county), the state, the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System (board), and Marquette University to pay health insurance premiums for the surviving spouse and dependent children of a law enforcement officer or emergency medical services practitioner who dies in the line of duty if the political subdivision, state, board, or university paid such premiums for the law enforcement officer or emergency medical services practitioner while he or she was employed by the political subdivision, state, board, or university. The requirement does not apply to a surviving spouse who remarries or reaches the age of 65, or to a surviving child after he or she reaches the age of 26. Current law provides similar benefits to the surviving spouse and dependent children of a fire fighter who dies, or has died, in the line of duty if the municipality (city, village, or town) paid such premiums for the fire fighter while he or she was employed by the municipality.

Also, under the bill, if a political subdivision pays such health insurance premiums, the political subdivision must file a request for reimbursement for its costs with the Department of Revenue, which is required to provide reimbursement. The reimbursement payments are funded from county and municipal aid shared revenue by a reduction in each county's and municipality's shared revenue in proportion to each entity's share of the total distribution of shared revenue payments.

The people of the state of Wisconsin, represented in senate and assembly, do enact as follows:

SB266-SSA1,1 Section 1. 20.835 (1) (db) of the statutes is amended to read:

SB266-SSA1,2,4 20.835 (1) (db) County and municipal aid account. A sum sufficient to make payments to counties, towns, villages, and cities under s. ss. 66.0137 (5) (d) and 79.035, less the amount paid from the appropriation under par. (r).

SB266-SSA1,2 Section 2 . 59.23 (2) (s) of the statutes is amended to read:

SB266-SSA1,3,2 59.23 (2) (s) List of local officials. Annually, on the first Tuesday of June, transmit to the secretary of state a list showing the name, phone number, electronic mail address, and post-office address of local officials, including the chairperson, mayor, president, clerk, treasurer, council and board members, and assessor of each municipality, and of the elective or appointive officials of any other local governmental unit, as defined in s. 66.0135 (1) (c), that is located wholly or partly within the county. Such lists shall be placed on file for the information of the public. The clerk, secretary, or other administrative officer of a local governmental unit, as defined in s. 66.0137 (1) (ae) (as), shall provide the county clerk the information he or she needs to complete the requirements of this paragraph.

SB266-SSA1,3 Section 3 . 66.0137 (1) (ac) of the statutes is created to read:

SB266-SSA1,3,5 66.0137 (1) (ac) “Board of Regents” means the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System.

SB266-SSA1,4 Section 4 . 66.0137 (1) (ae) of the statutes is renumbered 66.0137 (1) (as) and amended to read:

SB266-SSA1,3,11 66.0137 (1) (as) “Local governmental unit" means a municipality, county political subdivision, school district (as enumerated in s. 67.01 (5)), sewerage district, drainage district, and, without limitation because of enumeration, any other political subdivision of the state.

SB266-SSA1,5 Section 5 . 66.0137 (1) (af) of the statutes is created to read:

SB266-SSA1,3,18 66.0137 (1) (af) “Dies in the line of duty" means a death that occurs, or occurred, as a direct and proximate result of a personal injury sustained by, or a single exposure to a hazardous material or condition experienced by, a law enforcement officer, fire fighter, or emergency medical services practitioner while he or she was engaged in a line of duty activity or that arose out of and as a result of such an individual's performance of a line of duty activity.

SB266-SSA1,6 Section 6 . 66.0137 (1) (ah) of the statutes is created to read:

SB266-SSA1,3,23 66.0137 (1) (ah) “Emergency medical services practitioner” has the meaning given in s. 256.01 (5), except that in this section it applies only to an individual who is employed directly by a political subdivision or by a joint emergency medical services department operated jointly by 2 or more political subdivisions.

SB266-SSA1,7 Section 7 . 66.0137 (1) (am) of the statutes is created to read:

SB266-SSA1,3,25 66.0137 (1) (am) “Law enforcement officer" means all of the following:

SB266-SSA1,4,4 1. Any person employed by a political subdivision for the purpose of detecting and preventing crime and enforcing laws or ordinances and who is authorized to make arrests for violations of the laws or ordinances that the person is employed to enforce.

SB266-SSA1,4,6 2. Any jailer who, under the direction of a sheriff under s. 59.27 (1), keeps persons in a county jail.

SB266-SSA1,4,7 3. A Marquette University police officer, as defined in s. 175.42 (1) (b).

SB266-SSA1,4,8 4. A state patrol officer, as that term is defined in s. 252.01 (7).

SB266-SSA1,4,9 5. A state capitol police officer.

SB266-SSA1,4,10 6. A University of Wisconsin System police officer.

SB266-SSA1,4,11 7. An officer of the division of criminal investigation.

SB266-SSA1,4,12 8. A department of natural resources conservation warden.

SB266-SSA1,4,13 9. A county sheriff, undersheriff, or deputy sheriff.