Wisconsin Legislative Spotlight

The Week of April 12, 2010

The next general business floorperiod of the Wisconsin Legislature is scheduled to run from April 13 to April 22, 2010, and is the last scheduled general floorperiod of the 2009-2010 legislative session. The schedule of floorperiods for the 2009-2010 legislative session was established by 2009 Senate Joint Resolution 1.

Check the Assembly and Senate Daily Floor Calendars for items which will be considered during floor sessions.

No Decision on Lawmaker Discipline

An ethics committee has deadlocked twice on a vote to decide whether Representative Jeff Wood should face discipline for three recent driving under the influence arrests. The committee’s report will go to the Assembly without recommending a course of action, but the full house could vote to impose discipline ranging from a reprimand to expulsion. Representative Wood has already announced that he will not seek reelection.

Recent Bill Introductions

As of April 8, 942 Assembly bills and 678 Senate bills have been introduced. Recently introduced legislation can be found on the Legislature's Searchable Infobases site, or by using the Request text and history of legislative proposals function on the home page. Among bills introduced last week were:

• 2009 Assembly Bill 926, relating to creating the Department of Environmental Quality and transferring some of the authority and duties of the Department of Natural Resources to the Department of Environmental Quality and to the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.
• 2009 Assembly Bill 928 and 2009 Senate Bill 665, relating to licensing of individuals using cranes and heavy equipment.
• 2009 Assembly Bill 932, 2009 Assembly Bill 933, 2009 Assembly Bill 934, and 2009 Assembly Bill 935, relating to sex offender registration and notification.
• 2009 Assembly Bill 939 and 2009 Senate Bill 672, relating to compliance by employers with certain laws whose enforcement depends on the proper classification of persons as employees or nonemployees.
• 2009 Assembly Bill 941, relating to creating an income and franchise tax credit for businesses that contribute to a scholarship-granting organization or to an educational improvement organization and a nonrefundable individual income tax credit for education expenses paid for dependents who attend elementary and secondary schools.
• 2009 Senate Bill 663, relating to requiring bittering agents in certain engine coolants and antifreeze.
• 2009 Senate Bill 664, relating to financial assistance under the Clean Water Fund Program and the Safe Drinking Water Loan Program.
• 2009 Senate Bill 666, relating to requiring an assessment of a juvenile sex offender for the probability of reoffending and consideration of the results of the assessment in determining the services to be provided for the juvenile.
• 2009 Senate Bill 667, relating to licensure and regulation of behavior analysts, and insurance coverage of the services of behavior analysts for autism treatment.
• 2009 Senate Bill 674, relating to the age at which a person who is alleged to have violated a civil law or municipal ordinance is subject to circuit court or municipal court jurisdiction rather than to juvenile court jurisdiction and prohibiting a juvenile who has committed a civil law or municipal ordinance violation from being placed in a juvenile detention facility. (Raises the age from 17 to 18.)

Committee Activity

For information on upcoming events refer to the Schedule of Committee Activities.

Recently Signed Legislation

Governor Doyle has not signed any new legislation in the past week.

Resources from the LRB Library

Several bills have been introduced this session affecting unemployment compensation (unemployment insurance). All of these bills can be found under the heading “Unemployment insurance” in the Subject Index to Legislation.

Wisconsin has a distinctive place in the history of unemployment insurance as the first state to enact such legislation in 1932. The library has posted a Noteworthy Titles list, “Unemployment insurance legislation in Wisconsin”, which provides a selection of historical and current resources on the topic. To view all our Noteworthy Titles lists, visit the Library Services page.

Recent Publications

• The Legislative Reference Bureau released a Wisconsin Brief on Raw Milk Sales and the library released a "Tap the Power" annotated bibliography on Performance Pay for Teachers.
• The Legislative Audit Bureau released the State of Wisconsin Single Audit for 2008-09.
• The Legislative Fiscal Bureau released Status of the State's General Fund.
• The Legislative Council Staff issued a 2008 Comparative Study of Major Public Employee Retirement Systems.

For more information about Legislative Service Agency publications, see the left panel of the Spotlight index page.

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Send comments to LRB.Reference@legis.wisconsin.gov

Last revised: November 13, 2012