2. Requires DWD to promulgate rules providing for a right to a hearing in cases involving the liability of employers for contributions under the program.

3. Allows DWD to seek repayment of family or medical leave insurance benefits that are paid erroneously or as a result of willful misrepresentation. The bill allows DWD to establish other procedures for recovering overpayments and allows DWD to utilize procedures under the unemployment insurance law.

This bill requires the administrator of the Division of Personnel Management in the Department of Administration 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.

The bill also requires the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System to develop a plan for a program for paid family and medical leave of 12 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 2023-25 biennium.

This bill amends the 2023-25 Authorized State Building Program to add one project for the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The project involves the demolition of an engineering facility and construction of a replacement engineering building at UW–Madison. The bill transfers $197,336,000 from the general fund to the capital improvement fund for purposes of the project.

2023 Wisconsin Act 19 transferred moneys from the general fund to the capital improvement fund to fund projects in the 2023-25 Authorized State Building Program. This bill specifies that those moneys may be used for those projects. Current law generally provides that the capital improvement fund may be used only for purposes of public debt.

2023 Wisconsin Act 19 also provided the following:

1. That excess moneys transferred to the capital improvement fund under the act not used to fund projects authorized in the 2023-25 Authorized State Building Program must be transferred back to the general fund.

2. That moneys transferred to the capital improvement fund under the act, not to exceed $20,000,000, may be used to offset building program project budget cost overruns caused by inflation.

This bill provides that all moneys transferred to the capital improvement fund under the act not specified under item 1 above, or are not used to offset cost adjustments with respect to any building project authorized in the 2023-25 Authorized State Building Program, must be transferred back to the general fund.

This bill provides additional funding for the UW System under its general program operations appropriation.

Under current law, the Wisconsin grant program, administered by the Higher Educational Aids Board, provides grants to postsecondary resident students enrolled at least half time and registered as freshmen, sophomores, juniors, or seniors in UW System, technical college, private, and tribal postsecondary institutions.

The bill increases HEAB’s biennial appropriation for Wisconsin grants in the 2023-25 fiscal biennium by various amounts for UW System students, technical college students, students enrolled in a private, nonprofit institution of higher education in this state, and tribal college students.

Under current law, HEAB administers a nurse educator program that provides 1) fellowships to students who enroll in certain postgraduate nursing degree programs at institutions of higher education; 2) postdoctoral fellowships to recruit faculty for nursing programs at institutions of higher education; and 3) educational loan repayment assistance to recruit and retain faculty for nursing programs in institutions of higher education.

This bill increases HEAB’s biennial appropriation for the nurse educator program by $5,000,000 in each year of the 2023-25 fiscal biennium.

This bill provides additional funding for the Technical College System for state aid for technical colleges.

Under current law, if a Wisconsin Retirement System annuitant, or a disability annuitant who has attained his or her normal retirement date, is appointed to a position with a WRS-participating employer or provides employee services to a WRS-participating employer in which he or she is expected to work at least two-thirds of what is considered full-time employment by the Department of Employee Trust Funds, the annuity must be suspended and no annuity payment is payable until after the participant again terminates covered employment.

This bill removes the requirement that an annuitant suspend his or her annuity and instead allows an annuitant to elect to suspend the annuity and again become a participating employee or elect to not suspend his or her annuity and not become a participating employee. In other words, the bill allows an annuitant who returns to work for a participating employer but elects not to become a participating employee for purposes of the WRS to continue to receive his or her annuity.

Under current law, a WRS participant who has applied to receive a retirement annuity must wait at least 75 days between terminating covered employment with a WRS employer and returning to covered employment again as a participating employee. The bill reduces that period to 30 days.

This bill requires DWD to establish and operate a program to provide grants to regional organizations to design and implement plans to address their region’s health care-related workforce challenges that arose during or were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.