Thank you for taking the time to read this week's e-update. I always strive to include information you find interesting and informative as it relates to my work in Madison and the 60th Assembly District.
My most important goal remains serving you, my constituents. Helping you find solutions to difficult problems when it seems like the state is unresponsive is the single greatest reward for my staff and me. I take constituents' input seriously and continually work hard on your behalf.
I always have your thoughts and concerns in mind when deciding whether or not to support legislation. Furthermore, I appreciate when you take time out of your schedules to contact me.
Have a great week,
This week's survey
This week, Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee voted to remove hundreds of policy items from Governor Evers' 2021-2023 biennial budget proposal, including the expansion of Medicaid. Expanding Medicaid would have increased the number of Wisconsinites dependent upon government assistance by more than ninety-thousand.
Medicaid is a $10.6 billion state-run program, jointly funded by the federal government and state of Wisconsin. It has more than 1.1 million enrollees, providing government-run healthcare to roughly one in five Wisconsinites. BadgerCare covers every Wisconsinite with an income under the federal poverty level as well as children and pregnant women in households with incomes greater than three-hundred percent of the federal poverty level.
Once those thresholds have been reached, households with income between one-hundred-percent and four-hundred percent of the Federal Poverty Level are eligible to receive heavily subsidized coverage through the federal health insurance exchanges. This means there is no gap in coverage between when someone is no longer eligible for BadgerCare and when they become eligible for federal subsidies for the insurance exchanges. Wisconsin is the only state that did not expand Medicaid that has no such gap in coverage.
BadgerCare enrollment has increased by 216,639 between March 2020 and March 2021. According to the Badger Institute, Medicaid enrollment declined precipitously during the Trump economic recovery, but has witnessed a steady increase during the Biden administration. In January 2020, Medicaid enrollment was 775,000.
Medicaid spending in Wisconsin was on a runaway train long before the pandemic. In fact, overall spending by more than forty-eight percent in the previous decade, $10.7 billion in 2019-2020 compared with $7.2 billion in 2010-11, according to data from the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau.
In February 2018, 2017 Wisconsin Act 138, the Wisconsin Healthcare Stability Plan become law with bipartisan support. This legislation directed the state to seek federal funding for the reinsurance program through a 1332 waiver. This waiver is available specifically to allow states to manage how the Affordable Care Act is implemented for their residents. Reinsurance has resulted in lower premiums for eligible individuals since the program's inception. The program also led to more private insurance carriers remaining on the federal exchange, giving people more coverage options.
By adding childless, working-age adults earning up to one-hundred-thirty-eight percent of the Federal Poverty Level to Medicaid, who are eligible for significant assistance on the federal exchange, state taxpayers would be responsible for covering some of the extra costs. However, when someone in that group enrolls on the exchanges using subsidies, which are one-hundred percent fully funded, there is no cost passed on to taxpayers.
One of Medicaid's shortcomings is that the program reimburses healthcare providers at a rate of sixty percent of their cost. As such, providers are losing money on every patient they see, resulting in them charging more money to patients with private insurance, in order to compensate for lost revenue. Increasing the number of Wisconsinites on Medicaid would cause a greater shift in the cost and increase premiums for individuals who possess privately-funded or employer-sponsored health insurance plans.
A 2019 Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty estimated that Wisconsinites' insurance premiums would increase by $600 million if Medicaid was expanded.
It is imperative to denote that federal law prohibits hospitals from denying care to individuals who utilize emergency services. As such, Wisconsinites are able to receive care regardless of their ability to pay. There are a number of things Wisconsin can do to help individuals who are devoid of employer-based or private health insurance, but expanding Medicaid is not one of them.
Please take a moment to answer this week's survey question regarding the acceptance of federal Medicaid dollars.
Thank you for answering last week's survey question regarding the inclusion of policy items in the 2021-2023 biennial budget. In total, 104 individuals responded to last week's survey question.
Seventy-eight percent of respondents opposed including policy items in the budget. In contrast, twelve percent supported the inclusion of policy-related items.
What is more, eleven percent of respondents voted "other." Responses include:
"If both parties cannot find a way to work together, then I support trying to pass them in other ways."
"Absolutely not." If it does not impact or at least have a price tag, it needs to be a stand-alone item."
"The budget should deal with items that affect the budget. It is not a place to hide policy items."
My Legislation
This week, three bills I authored that originated in the 2018 Legislative Council Study Committee on Child Support and Placement, were signed into law by Governor Tony Evers. A fourth bill, relating to riparian rights, is awaiting Governor Evers' signature. To date, six bills I have authored this session have been signed into law.
The following bills were signed into law last week:
Senate Bill 105 (2021 Wisconsin Act 35)
Senate Bill 105 made two technical changes to state law. First, it updated DCF administrative rules relating to child support formulas to reflect that shared physical placement arrangements are now common and should not be considered special circumstances.
This bill codified current practices and helped avoid switching to a new methodology for calculating child support payments. It is imperative to denote that formulas used to calculate child support amounts were not changed by Senate Bill 105.
Additionally, Senate Bill 105 made changes to family support orders. Prior to the enactment of this law, family support combined portions of child support and maintenance into a single payment. For tax purposes, family support payments were considered maintenance payments, so the payment is deductible to the payor-spouse and taxable to the recipient-spouse.
Under the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, maintenance payments, such as family support, are no longer deductible for the payor and included as income to the recipient.
Senate Bill 107 (Wisconsin Act 36)
Prior to the enactment of this law, divorcing parties were required to file a parenting plan with the court only after mediation fails or if mediation was waived. Senate Bill 107 required parents to submit proposed parenting plans to family court services or the mediator at least ten days prior to mediation.
Senate Bill 112 (Wisconsin Act 113)
Senate Bill 112 specified that if a court granted less than twenty-five percent physical placement to a parent, a finding of fact must be entered as to the reason greater placement with said parent is not in the child's best interest.
In addition, Senate Bill 112 reordered statutory best-interest factors, specified that the factors are not necessarily in order of importance. This component originated in an informal State Bar Family Law working group that convened prior to the study committee.
Thank you to my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for supporting these bills and Governor Evers for signing them into law. Bipartisanship and collaboration do still exist in Madison.
LRB-2431
This week, Senator Jerry Petrowski and I introduced LRB-2431, relating to interest on claims of excessive assessment and for recovery of unlawful property taxes. The bill, despite being released this week, already has strong bipartisan support.
Quite simply, LRB-2431 cleans up two inconsistencies in state law with the interest municipalities must pay on property tax refunds. The inconsistencies in current law have negative financial consequences for city and village taxpayers.
LRB-2431 modernizes and makes consistent between similar provisions the interest rate local governments pay on certain property tax refunds and requires other taxing jurisdictions, such as counties and school districts, to help pay the cost of interest payments on property tax refunds. Under current law, all local taxing jurisdictions contribute proportionately to the cost of the tax refund itself, but only the city, village, or town pays the interest on the refund. This bill allows the city, village, or town to collect from each underlying taxing jurisdiction its proportionate share of the interest paid on property tax refunds.
LRB-3195
This week, Senator Mary Felzkowski and I introduced legislation relating to the sale of DOT surplus property.
Often, when the Department of Transportation prepares for a state highway project, the agency purchases property for local landowners that abuts the highway or is located where a new road will run. While some of this land is subsequently used for projects, such as adding new lanes to highways, a substantial portion of the land becomes surplus property and is held by the state until it can be sold. This surplus property, while held by DOT, serves no purpose and keeps these acres off the tax rolls.
As of March 2021, there were nine-hundred-eighty-one surplus land parcels held by DOT, totaling 1,571 acres. Out of these parcels, only eighty-eight were considered marketable, totaling two-hundred-twenty-three acres. These eighty-eight parcels are marketable because they possess easy access and can be sold to the public. Unfortunately, this means that more than 1,500 acres are currently being held in limbo by DOT as non-marketable, since these properties do not have access and can only be sold to the abutting property owners.
The purpose of this bill is to establish a hasty process for DOT to sell off property that is considered unmarketable. Dot will be required to identify and attempt to sell these unmarketable parcels at least every two years to the owners of adjacent property. When DOT attempts to sell these parcels, they must accept sealed bids and sell the property to the person who offers the highest bid. The goal of this bill is to sell these properties as soon as possible and get them back on the tax rolls.
Parcels held by the state that sit unused do not benefit anyone. This bill creates a pathway for getting unmarketable properties back into the hands of landowners, benefitting them, the state, and our local communities.
Events
The following are events that will be held this week in the 60th Assembly District. If you have any upcoming events you will like included, please contact my office.
One of the best ways to date with what is happening in Madison is to sign up for the legislature's notification tracking system. This service affords you with the opportunity to track legislative activities in Madison. Upon creation of a free account, you can sign up to receive notification about specific bills of committees as well as legislative activity pertaining to a subject (i.e., health care, education, etc.).
If you have any comments regarding the subject of this E-Update, please feel free to contact me.
Rep. Rob Brooks State Capitol, Room 216 North P.O. Box 8952 Madison, WI 53708 Toll-Free (888) 534-0060 or (608) 267-2369 Rep.Rob.Brooks@legis.wi.gov| |
