2015-2016 Legislative Session Recap 

Bills Authored by Senator Cowles that Became Law 

  • Act 351 (Senate Bill 323, authored with Rep. Murtha): Wisconsin allows survivors of domestic abuse to have a victim advocate accompanying them in the medical, criminal and judicial process, but the prior law wasn't perfect. This legislation extended privileges of victim advocates to those who suffered from child sexual abuse, sexual assault or human trafficking, and ensures the advocate may act in confidence.
  • Act 114 (Senate Bill 233, authored with Rep. Steffen): When Brown County voters enacted a 0.5% sales tax in 2000 to help fund Lambeau Field renovations, it was with the understanding that once enough funds were collected, the tax would cease. After more than enough funds were collected, this legislation returned excess funds to local governments for property tax relief and economic development.
  • Act 43 (Senate Bill 15, authored with Rep. Czaja): After researchers began finding more plastic microbeads in water and aquatic wildlife in the Great Lakes, it was discovered that many of these microbeads traced back to personal care products. To prevent the further addition of microbeads being washed down the drain to our waterbodies, this legislation banned their use in personal care products.
  • Act 264 (Assembly Bill 658, authored with Rep. Nygren): Drug tests are a necessary part of certain investigations or job interviews, but unfortunately some try to cheat the drug testing process through what's known as a masking agent to hide what could be a positive test. This legislation makes it illegal to use, possess, manufacture, distribute, or advertise these masking agents in Wisconsin.
  • Act 366 (Senate Bill 325, authored with Rep. Heaton): State law had already recognized the crime of abuse of a child, but some offenders of this crime aren't just engaging in abuse once, but rather repeatedly. Seeing this sad reality in Wisconsin, this legislation created a more severe criminal penalty for the repeated abuse of a child, should the perpetrator be found guilty in a court of law.
  • Act 204 (Senate Bill 545, authored with Rep. Tittl): Knowing that many businesses which have taken previous actions that have led to contamination are now looking to address that contamination head-on, this legislation makes a number of changes to state’s remediation statutes, including creating a Voluntary Party Liability Exemption, and creates checks and assurances on their cleanup efforts.
  • Act 286 (Assembly Bill 612, authored with Rep. Steffen): Under state law, an establishment looking to serve alcohol for consumption on the premises, such as a restaurant or bar, must receive a Class B liquor license, and each local government is limited on the number of licenses they have available. This legislation creates three new specific mechanisms for providing additional Class B liquor licenses.
  • Act 392 (Assembly Bill 515, authored with Rep. Tittl): After the 2015-17 State Budget reduced financial assistance to local governments that provide recycling services by $4 million in Fiscal Year 2015-2016, communities through the state were left on the hook for more of their costs for this essential service. This legislation restored $3 million to the state's basic recycling grant program.
  • Act 181 (Assembly Bill 390, authored with Rep. Steineke): Cities and villages have the power under law to create a tax incremental district (TID), which is financing mechanism that helps to promote local economic development without putting the taxpayers at risk, but towns are more constrained in their ability. This legislation created an exemption for the Town of Freedom to allow them to create TIDs.
  • Act 2 (Senate Bill 6, authored by the Committee): In response to statutory hiccups hindering audit efforts by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB), this legislation expands LAB’s authority to access Government Accountability Board records that may otherwise be confidential. When an evaluation is ongoing, access to these records is crucial, and Act 2 ensures they’re available.
  • Act 111 (Senate Bill 282, authored with Rep. Macco): Renard Island in the City of Green Bay just off the shoreline of Bay Beach is owned by Brown County under a legislative act from the 1970s. Filled by dredged materials, the County was looking to use Renard Island for a park, but needed a path for access to the island. This legislation grants an additional portion of lakebed title for a causeway.
  • Act 341 (Senate Bill 581, authored with Rep. Kitchens): State law creates limitations on any local elected official also being an employee of the community they serve. For firefighters or EMTs, that meant they couldn't earn more than $15,000 annually. For smaller communities under 5,000 residents, this legislation increased that threshold to $25,000 to help fill their local first responder needs.
  • Act 96 (Assembly Bill 45, authored with Rep. Jacque): A tax incremental district (TID) is a financing mechanism to help communities promote economic development in their region without investing taxpayer dollars. While cities and villages were previously able to join forces to enact a TID across jurisdictional lines, towns were not able to participate. This legislation allows towns to participate.
  • Act 277 (Senate Bill 599, authored with Rep. Kleefisch): Under law, mixed martial arts, with certain exceptions, was a regulated activity by the Department of Safety and Professional Services, allowing the state to ensure the safety of the sport. This legislation expanded that regulation to any unarmed combat sport, including boxing and more, to further ensure participant safety without impeding competition.
  • Act 365 (Assembly Bill 667, authored with Rep. Kleefisch): To help improve the uniformity of investigations into the abuse or neglect of a child across the state to ensure that all investigations serve the child’s best interests, this legislation required the Department of Children and Families to review their protocols and practices and release a report on areas of improvement to all relevant stakeholders.
  • Act 42 (Assembly Bill 28, authored with Rep. Jacque): State statute had previously ensured that drivers must obey traffic lights and that failure to yield could result in penalties, but no consideration was given to if the traffic light had lost power. This legislation simply ensures that it should be known and enforced that an intersection with a nonfunctioning traffic light must be treated like a stop sign.
  • Act 205 (Senate Bill 567, authored with Rep. Loudenbeck): After a 2013 bill to create a multi-discharger variance (MDV) that allows municipal utilities and other entities like cheese plants to avoid costly upgrades to wastewater systems by paying into an account for better local land practices, this legislation makes small changes to comply with EPA requests before the MDV may be implemented in Wisconsin.
  • Act 336 (Assembly Bill 662, authored with Rep. Nygren): The 2015-17 State Budget placed a moratorium on an increase in fees charged by a corner to a funeral home or similar entity for two-years, followed by increases no larger than the Consumer Price Index in a given year. This legislation makes certain changes to the budget stipulations, including that the fee limits applied to medical examiners.
  • Act 82 (Senate Bill 173, authored with Rep. Heaton): Recognizing the need for changes to the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act in Wisconsin as a result of the Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance, this legislation shortens the timeframe for the implementation of the nationwide law changes and makes other necessary technical corrections.