School Start Exemption, Campground Bill,
Tourism Budget & More
February 27, 2015
From now through June there will be something happening on the state level at the Capitol each week which will impact Wisconsin's lodging industry in one way or another. We will try to share some highlights you should be aware of, as time allows.
Everyone by now is aware of the "Right-To-Work" legislation (SB 44) that passed the state Senate this week and is now going to the Assembly for consideration and a hearing by the Assembly Committee on Labor, followed likely by a vote by the full state Assembly sometime next week. This has dominated the media coverage, but by no means is the only issue moving right now.
School Start Date Exemption
On Monday of this week, Sen. Alberta Darling and Rep. Jim Ott began circulating a bill draft to fellow legislators asking them to sign on to LRB-1677 Creating an Exemption for the School Start Date, with a deadline of next Friday, March 6, for becoming a co-sponsor when the bill is introduced shortly after.
This bill would allow any school district that has a high school where 20 percent or more of their students took one or more Advance Placement (AP) exams in May to receive an automatic exemption to having their entire school district start school no earlier than September 1. In other words, an estimated more than 30 school districts could start school as early as they wanted the next year.
While the goal of the bill is to enable schools to start earlier in August to give those taking AP exams more education by the May exam, the state Department of Public Instruction (DPI) just released in late October official data showing that students in Wisconsin already test higher than the national average in AP exams by 9-11 percentage points. In addition, the DPI already has the authority to grant a waiver to the school start date for exceptional situations; however, they are selective in requiring proof of an unusually negative impact on education to obtain a waiver.
WH&LA has routed a memo in opposition to this bill, and we strongly suggest that those impacted by earlier start dates in Wisconsin, should contact both your state Senator and your state Assembly Representative to ask them to neither sign on to LRB-1677 creating an exemption to the School Start Date nor support the proposal as a bill. To find your legislators, go to http://legis.wisconsin.gov/, type in your home address in the box under "Find My Legislators" and click on the email address link in the results.
70 MPH on Highways
Assembly Bill AB 27 was introduced by Rep. Tittl on February 9, and routed to the Assembly Committee on Transportation, where a hearing was already held, with amendments introduced. This bill allows the DOT to designate a speed limit of 70 MPH for freeways or expressways in Wisconsin, instead of the current 65 MPH maximum. Wisconsin is currently the only midwestern state with a 65 MPH cap, since the Federal government removed penalties for limits over 55 MPH back in 1995. The amendments introduced to date allow the DOT to impose, on freeways/expressways that become posted as 70 MPH, a separate 65 MPH limit just for commercial motor vehicles if they deem it important for safety purposes. The Transportation Committee has scheduled their vote on this bill for this coming Tuesday, March 3.
Proposed Campground Bill
The Wisconsin Association of Campground Owners (WACO) is pursuing legislation that will provide for separate requirements for "camping units" (which are not defined here). WH&LA has testified proposing a definition of Camping Unit to the Department of Health Services, who is concurrently pursuing Campground Rule Changes that can impact the bill. We feel that special regulations would be fair in entitling certain structures to have less regulations, but that the type of structure should be clearly defined up front, and should apply equally to the specified camping unit structure whether it is at a campground or a resort.
Earlier this week, Sen. Luther Olsen and Rep. Keith Ripp circulated their bill draft LRB-0157 asking fellow legislators to sign on in support of the bill by Friday, March 6 - before introduction in the legislature. If you feel that the "Camping Unit" eligible for more simplified regulations in this bill should be more closely defined up front, contact your state Senator and state Assembly Representative to ask them to neither sign on in support of LRB-0157 nor support the bill once introduced until it contains a mutually agreeable definition of "Camping Unit' up front in the legislation.
State Tourism Budget
The State Budget Overview in the WH&LA Capitol Insider sent on February 17, outlined the preliminary interpretation of the State Department of Tourism Budget, which is now verified. The key points are noted below, which identifies an overall budget reduction. We will advise members when the Joint Finance Committee hearings are to be held and will encourage members concerned with the budget reduction to contact Joint Finance Committee members (and their own legislators) to pursue an increase, not a decrease in the state Tourism Marketing Budget, based on the documented Return on Investment (ROI) that increases in tourism marketing have generated in sales tax revenues that the state can use to fund many other critical functions as well.
- $475,000 in earmarks will be removed from the Department's statutory obligations; however, the funding for it was also removed from the Department's total budget, meaning it is a reduction in the budget
- Marketing functions for all state agencies are moved into a new "Office of Marketing" within the Department of Tourism for efficiencies. This eliminates 19 positions at other agencies and adds funding for just eight transferring staff from four agencies. While this funding is added to the Tourism budget, the transferred staff's responsibilities are not Tourism marketing. In addition, the Department of Tourism has the added task of oversight for marketing other agencies, with only eight of 27 current positions coming on board to do the marketing tasks for the other agencies.
- Funding and administration of the Kickapoo Valley Reserve was transferred from the Department of Tourism to the DNR.
- With all of the shifting of funding, the net impact on the Department of Tourism's budget for tourism promotion will be down just over $500,000 for both years - over a $1 million reduction for the biennium budget.
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