Dear WH&LA Lodging Member:
With our new Governor Tony Evers and the new state Legislature sworn into office last week, we are preparing for a completely different legislative landscape, with one party (Democrats) now controlling the administrative branch and the other main party (Republicans) controlling both chambers of the state legislature. In the most recent election years we either had Republicans controlling all three, or splits where the winning Governor's party also controlled one of the two chambers, making this a completely different environment.
What does this mean in general? Legislative changes require passage in both chambers followed by the Governor signing off or vetoing legislation. A governor cannot introduce legislation, so he must find state Senators and Assembly Representatives to introduce bills and muster enough support within the majority party to get it passed, before the Governor can sign it into law. That will be a challenge for Governor Evers unless bi-partisan negotiations occur. On the other hand, Republicans may control both chambers and may get bills they like introduced and passed, however that does no good unless Governor Evers will approve them. In other words for legislative action to occur there will need to be a level of bi-partisan compromises, making the new 2-year legislative session a new and very interesting landscape with new approaches. The good news is that tomorrow Governor Evers will be meeting with Republican legislators to discuss key interests of each and explore how they can work together.
The primary focus at the start of a new session is historically on the State Budget, which is intended to go through process and be signed into law by July 1 when the new 2-year budget cycle begins. With a new Governor, it usually takes a little longer after they are elected to dive into the fine details of a Governor's Budget Proposal, normally presented in February, but recently was projected to be presented to the Legislature in March. Normally this proposal is taken up by the powerful Joint Finance Committee of the legislature, who analyze all the components, hold a series of public hearings around the state, make their revisions and then send it to both chambers to further deliberate and eventually reach a compromise on a final version which goes to the Governor to sign (and usually veto portions they don't like).
This year, many have predicted that even though Governor Evers will create and introduce his Budget Proposal, the Joint Finance Committee of the legislature may consider plans to prepare their own version to move forward, instead of working off the Governor's proposal. If this occurs, while it may streamline and expedite the process within the legislature, it will still need to gain approval by the Governor before becoming law, and one cannot ignore that the Governor has significant powers with the ability to strike out words and numbers in the bill before signing. There are so many tactical "what ifs" this time around that there is a good chance that Budget deliberations could drag out throughout the summer. Different than the federal government, if the new state budget is not intact on July 1, funding levels continue at the levels of the current year until passage.
Here is a brief snapshot of just some of the issues we will be watching carefully for in each (always massive) version of the State Budget introduced:
- The State Tourism Marketing Budget
- The level of funding for Transportation, and any new or increased sources of funding
- Any changes to local business Personal Property Taxes
- Any changes to Arts funding
- Any changes to the room tax law
- Any changes to short term rental laws
- Any new Local Option Tax authority that could include a tax on lodging
- Minimum Wage increases
- Changes to the School Start Date law
- Other potential changes not yet on the radar!
The WH&LA Board of Directors will be meeting next week, and one of the many topics discussed will be a WH&LA 2019 Action Day in Madison. Once this is set, we will let members know the date, timing, and format, as it is quite apparent already that any industry that does not maximize their voice with their legislators and the Governor, will more likely than ever be put in a position to have to adapt later to whatever consequences come their way.
Future editions of Capitol Insider will be issued when timely news of interest can be communicated, and will be sent only to current Lodging Members as a member service. Please be sure to whitelist our address, so when these are sent out with the latest news, they will not get caught in your spam filter and you will receive them.
Thank you for your continued support of the WH&LA-
Best,
Trisha
