Dear WH&LA Lodging Member:
First, we are pleased to share with you an advance copy of our latest WH&LA Wisconsin Room Tax Series addition: Determining Tourism Promotion & Tourism Development Expenditures, which will be live on our website section on Room Tax (www.wisconsinlodging.org/roomtax) by Thursday. You may recognize some of the details from our recent WH&LA Capitol Insider n Room Tax sent on Feb. 16, however there are a few critical clarifications added to address many of your questions of late. The purpose of this new resource is to have a handy one-page document that can be referenced by tourism commissions, tourism entities, and all lodging properties with a vested interest in having the room tax that you collect spent in compliance with the law - as well as interested media.
This resource provides a simplified approach that should make decisions on how to spent room tax monies required to be used on tourism promotion and tourism development a little more clear. Feel free to share this tool ( not the entire WH&LA Capitol Insider please!) with your local tourism commission or tourism entity, if you feel this could be helpful to them.
School Start Date Development
Late last week State Senator Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) introduced SB 96 (http://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2017/related/proposals/sb96.pdf) proposing to eliminate the no earlier than September 1 School Start Date law. This is an identical ("companion") bill to AB 103 introduced in February by Rep. Jim Ott (R-Mequon), with the same 11 Senate and 24 Assembly cosponsors, meaning that no additional co-sponsors have signed on since the Assembly bill was introduced, which is a modestly favorable sign.
SB 96 has been assigned to the Senate Education Committee, with Sen. Luther Olsen, who has come out strongly in opposition to the proposal, as Chair, but with bill sponsor Sen. Darling as Vice-Chair. While no hearings for either bill have been scheduled to date, it is likely that at least one of the two houses will hold a public hearing, which will no doubt attract a large number of school superintendents and School Board officials.
The WH&LA has updated our Issue Brief on Key Points For Keeping the Start Date Law, which provides a number of key points that may be helpful to incorporate when contacting legislators. For properties that are negatively impacted by August school start dates around the state, please contact your state legislators to ask them to oppose both AB 103 and SB 96. Your help will also be needed if/when a public hearing is called, so that the tourism industry voice does not get silenced by the powerful and vocal school administrators and school boards lobby, who has been very effective in getting local resolutions in support of the legislation passed and sent to their legislators.
Event Barn Bill
Rep. Travis Tranel and Sen. Howard Marklein are circulating for co-sponsors a bill draft, very similar to a bill introduced last session, that will provide more limited restrictions on historic barns built before 1965, that are rented out for weddings, conferences, fundraisers, and other social events. This is not a proposal from the Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism Association, who had opposed the bill last session primarily as it did not restrict eligible barns to A-1 Agricultural zone properties, which means that barns owned by commercial (vs agricultural) businesses would be eligible.
The WH&LA is aware that while a number of members near such an event barn could benefit from increased occupancy from the events, other members with their own event space may not appreciate sites that compete for business having less regulations to comply with. If you would like to express your opinion, contact your state Representative or state Senator and reference "LRB-2413/LRB-2473 - relating to certain buildings used for social events".
The following is the LRB analysis of the bill proposal:
Analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau
This bill provides an exemption from building code requirements applicable to public buildings and places of employment for buildings historically used for farming (barns) that were built before 1965 and that are used principally for wedding receptions and similar social events. Such a barn is exempt under the bill if certain requirements are satisfied, including all of the following:
1. If the barn is internally wired for electricity or contains an elevator or other conveyance, the wiring or the elevator or other conveyance complies with applicable law.
2. All areas of the barn used for wedding receptions or other social events satisfy applicable state accessibility requirements.
3. Each year, there is at least one period of 90 consecutive days in which the barn is used for no more than one social event.
4. Smoking and all open flames are prohibited in the barn and within 50 feet of the barn, except for certain catering services.
5. The barn satisfies certain fire protection and posting requirements.
The bill authorizes the Department of Safety and Professional Services to conduct inspections of barns that are subject to the bill's
requirements. Additionally, under the bill, DSPS may, if it finds structural analysis is necessary, conduct or have another person conduct a structural analysis of a barn to determine the barn's fitness for conducting wedding receptions and other social events. DSPS may require the owner of a barn to rectify any structural unsoundness that renders the barn unsafe for that use.
Best,
Trisha
