Dear WH&LA Lodging Member:
The state Assembly wrapped up their last official session for the year very early this morning, and thanks to the vigilance of our Contract Lobbyist Kathi Kilgore, who was monitoring and working on our issues past midnight, we can share the following updates.
Please keep in mind that these are the actions of the Assembly only, with the state Senate yet to take up in March (or reject) what the Assembly passed.
Thank you to the members who contacted their Assembly Representatives asking for support of this version of the bill, as it did pass last evening! For a breakdown of the components, see Wednesday’s
Capitol Insider.
In a simplified nutshell, this bill requires Marketplace Providers to collect & remit room tax on their Wisconsin property lodging sales, to provide more information to municipalities, and to face municipal penalties if they do not. It also finally requires municipalities retaining more than 30% of room tax per the “grandfather clause” to publicly report the dollar caps they are now subject to, so it would be public if they retain more than they are entitled to in the statute.
Negotiations on a last-minute amendment to this bill went into the evening, with previously introduced
Amendment 1
and then brand new
Amendment 3
passed and sent to the Senate for their consideration. Many of the changes in Amendment 3 were made to try to achieve a version that the Senate is more likely to pass, although nothing is certain. The final package is much more simplified than the original bill, but the key points included now are:
- The extended bar time during the 4 nights in July during the DNC, with over 50,000 attendees coming to the Milwaukee and a range of surrounding areas, will still enable staying open until 4:00 am, but only for the following 14 Southeast Wisconsin counties of: Kenosha, Racine, Walworth, Rock, Milwaukee, Waukesha, Jefferson, Dane, Ozaukee, Washington, Dodge, Columbia, Sheboygan, and Fond du Lac
- An important change is that this will be an “Opt-In” requiring municipalities in those counties to adopt a resolution allowing the extended hours in their municipality
- The Safe Ride Program Surcharge for DUI’s will increase from $50 to $75 to increase funding for the safe ride program administered by the Tavern League.
This bill, clarifying in the statutes that employers are allowed to require tipped employees to use an electronic signature or other electronic means that uniquely identifies the employee when acknowledging the counting of tips toward fulfillment of the employer’s obligation to pay the minimum wage, also passed and was sent to the State Senate.
This bill, specifying “Hospitality and Tourism” as a required career cluster in Youth Apprenticeships, also passed and was sent to the State Senate
The WH&LA will provide further information as the state Senate begins their final considerations in March.
Best,
Trisha
