• 137 more State Assembly bills have been introduced in this session than same time last session (818 bills so far compared to 681)
• 129 more State Senate bills have been introduced in this session than same time last session (653 bills so far compared to 524)
  

WH&LA maintains an extensive State Legislative Issues Tracker in our office to keep an eye on which bills are of interest and where they are in the legislative process. Periodically we update a very condensed version of the State Issues Tracker in the member section of our website, which is password protected for our lodging members only. It lists and provides a very brief summary of all of the bills we are following, and notes which bills have already been passed and been signed into law and the remaining ones that continue to be "live" until the legislature adjourns within the next few months. If you cannot recall your password to access this document, contact Michelle in our office at [email protected] (or 262/782-2851) and be sure to mention your name and property for verification.

The following are just a few updates on some bills that our lodging members may find of interest.

State Tourism Funding
Unfortunately we have not yet seen any movement in Sen. Darling's bill that would increase our state Tourism Marketing Budget by $3 million in each of the next two years ($6 million total). This will need to gain speed quickly to get through committees and to the floor in each house before they adjourn. To add your support, start with contacting your state Senator and ask them to help move SB forward, and also contact the Senate committee chair to ask them to schedule a hearing soon.

The good news on AB 512/SB 384 creating the Frank Lloyd Wright Trail is that an amendment was introduced yesterday in the Assembly Committee which removes the $500,000 earmark from the state Tourism Marketing Budget and instead requires Tourism to only pay up to $50,000 to reimburse the Department of Transportation for the cost of identifying signage, with the rest of the funding needing to come from non-state funding sources. Following introduction of this amendment, the bill quickly received the support for passage, so it appears that the tourism industry's concerns over earmarking some of our limited tourism marketing dollars were addressed.

Also good news is that clarification was made that SB 483/AB 636 creating and funding the Creative Economies Grant Program primarily intended for arts groups will also not come from our current State Tourism Marketing Budget. Instead, new funding of $500,000 over the next two years would be appropriated and then earmarked for these grants. In other words, it would be newly added tourism dollars that would be earmarked instead of taking away from our current budget. The Assembly Committee on Jobs & the Economy held a public hearing on this bill this week, where the clarification was made by one of the sponsors Sen. Sheila Harsdorf when the concerns were raised.   

Broadband Expansion Grants 

More positive news is that there are now two bills that will provide an increase in the current broadband expansion grants, which should help expedite improved internet service in the more rural parts of our state to allow more of our state to provide the internet service that businesses and travelers want and need.

New AB 798 was introduced this week by Rep. Quinn, which would increase the current $6 million in funding for these grants to $10 million plus would eliminate the current restriction that only $1.5 million could be awarded each year, which should expedite implementation considerably.

Also, this week previously introduced SB 519 which provided similar changes but with a catch that priority would be given to counties with the highest unemployment rates, had an amendment introduced the removed that priority requirement - making it very similar to the new AB 798, with both helping to move technical improvements finally in areas with slow or unreliable internet service. If your property is in an area needing this access improvement, let your state Assembly representative and State senator know that you need their support to gain passage for these bills!   

Tourism Entity Changes in Room Tax Statute

The Assembly Committee on Tourism held a hearing this week on AB 714 Tourism Entity Technical Changes, with limited testimony provided by WACVB and WMC. WH&LA has agreed to support the changes and registered our support at the hearing to ensure that the tourism industry stays united before legislators who could be influenced by local officials wishing to open the door. Fortunately, WACVB and WMC lobbyists were able to retain the support of the League of Municipalities before introduction, which considerably reduces the likelihood of surprises. Next is to get the bill scheduled for a vote in the Assembly Committee, plus get the Senate bill heard before the Senate Committee and then a vote schedules in Senate Committee before bringing the bills to the floor of each house in the coming weeks. This is an aggressive plan, but doable.

As a refresher, this bill has two parts. The first part ensures that pretty much all CVBs and chambers that currently receive room tax funding for tourism promotion and tourism development would easily be eligible to continue to do so. The second part modifies a requirement in the Room Tax Reform package that there must be a lodging representative on the tourism entity board from each municipality contributing room tax to a tourism entity to instead provide an option for a minimum of four lodging representatives total. This addresses the concerns of some CVBs that have a tourism zone with in some cases 8 - 15 municipalities, which would expand their board considerably. They also noted it is many times challenging to get a lodging representative to serve.   

Other Room Tax Legislation

The WH&LA remains vigilant to ensure that SB 516/AB 655 enabling municipalities to raid Room Tax revenue designated for tourism to be used for a broad definition of economic development instead, will not move forward in either committee. Should this gain momentum, we most definitely will seek support from all members to stop this challenge to the concept of funding local tourism promotion through local room tax. 

 

Liquor License Quotas

SB 535/AB 612 making changes to the liquor license quota requirements passed on a voice vote in the Assembly and is awaiting a Senate Committee vote before consideration before the full Senate.

As a refresher, this bill, with some limitations, expands licenses beyond the quota for: an area meeting the definition of "premier economic development district" (intended for the Lambeau Field development in Green Bay) for a minimum license fee of $30,000, and for contiguous municipalities that are willing to sell any spare licenses for a minimum of $10,000 each. It also revises the 300 seat restaurant exception to license caps to stipulate the seating must be indoors and be permanent seating (not retroactive), and stipulates that any refunds or rebates of license fees are not allowed.    

More bills introduced in the last 10 days: 

• AB 750 would eliminate the personal property tax by 2020
• AB 761 would require anyone selling gift cards/certificates who is in the process of transferring ownership or selling their property to ensure that the new owner will honor the card/certificate, with exclusions for donated or deeply discounted cards/certificates
• AB 762 changes the method for tallying votes in changing condominium documents so that if if there is just one (or multiple with a formal agreement) owner with legal title to 2/3 of the units, the vote counts shift to being one vote per owner, regardless of the number of units owned.
• AB 803 has numerous changes to the intoxicated use of ATVs, UTVs, snowmobiles, and boats to make them more uniform, and increases penalties for repeat offenses plus requires absolute sobriety for anyone under 21.
• SB 597 requires a boat operator to only allow the vessel to move if every passenger under age 13 keeps wearing an approved PFD unless they are below deck in an enclosed cabin.
  

ACTION DAY FEBRUARY 17 IN MADISON!

If you have not yet registered for the February 17 WH&LA Action Day, please be sure to do so soon so that we can schedule meetings with your legislators or their key staff and plan ahead to have a knowledgeable WH&LA staff person or leader join you in your meeting, if you so request.

If you would like to talk to a peer who has attended in recent years to feel more comfortable in what Action Day is like, just let us know ([email protected]) and we will be happy to have one of our leaders call you. Our feedback is consistently extremely positive that this event is enjoyable and an eye-opener on how state government works. We hope you will join us this year!

LAST NOTE for today: If you ever want to let us know whether these updates are on target with sharing what you would like to know or if we could improve, please let us know by sending an email to [email protected]. We value your input and support.