Seeking common ground on budget in Wisconsin

Daily Reporter (Milwaukee), Jun 18, 2009 by Paul Snyder

The state Legislature's budget conference committee has a long to- do list before striking a compromise between the Senate and Assembly versions of the spending package.

The following list breaks down, according to budget topics, construction-related items that appear in one version of the budget but not the other.

Building program

Assembly budget

Delete the $28.1 million University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Nursing project.

Senate budget

Provide $10 million in bonding for a new engineering facility at Marquette University.

Direct state Building Commission to use $500,000 of the state's building trust fund to study expanding dental education, including the possibility of new school in Marshfield.

Commerce

Assembly budget

Let Wisconsin Department of Commerce require contractor registration and establish a Jan. 1, 2010, mandatory registration date.

Decrease brownfields grant program by $760,000 during biennium.

General provisions

Senate budget

Modify the definition of "public contract" under municipal law governing public works projects.

Define "service and maintenance work" to mean work performed directly by the municipality on minor pavement and ditch projects.

Specify that all municipal public contracts -- except those let by the state, a school district or school board -- would be required to be let on the basis of competitive bids and awarded to the lowest responsible bidder

Prohibit municipalities from subdividing projects into multiple public contract, allocating the work or workers or transferring jurisdiction of a project to avoid the competitive bid and lowest responsible bidder provisions.

Natural resources

Senate budget

Require owners of construction landfills to pay $12.85 per ton in tipping fees for waste material generated from construction, demolition or razing work. Current fees only apply to waste dumped at licensed landfills.

Delete provision letting the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District use design/build on a project to turn landfill gas to electricity.

Public instruction

Assembly budget

Require Milwaukee Public School Board ensure 30 percent of full- time employees working on district construction projects using federal stimulus money reside in Milwaukee's Community Development Block Grant area.

Shared revenue and tax relief

Senate budget

A one-year extension of tax-incremental finance districts for affordable-housing projects.

Transportation

Assembly budget

Delete the anti-pass-through provision in the oil-franchise fee and set a 2 percent flat rate for the sale of all vehicle fuel, letting companies decide whether to absorb the cost or pass it on to consumers.

Create Chippewa Valley and Fox Valley regional transit authorities.

Require Wisconsin Department of Transportation perform a feasibility study for a stop in Waterloo as part of a Milwaukee to Madison high-speed rail line.

A $400,000 WisDOT grant for construction of bike lines on County Highway B in Douglas County.

A $175,000 WisDOT grant for railroad improvements at Old Highway 18 crossing in Stockton.

A $500,000 WisDOT grant for Eisner Avenue rehab in Sheboygan.

Senate budget

Delete the oil-franchise fee entirely and move $260.1 million in the next two years from the general budget to the transportation budget.

Grant Milwaukee County authority to impose a 1 percent sales tax to help pay for transit, parks, culture and emergency services.

Require prevailing wage laws on any public works projects in a southeastern regional transit authority.

Require a binding referendum to create a Dane County regional transit authority.

Create a Chequamegon Bay regional transit authority.

Require competitive bidding on railroad projects using public money.

Require WisDOT to build a pedestrian and bike path along Highway 102 in Rib Lake if village contributes $60,000.

A $3.75 million WisDOT grant for construction of an Interstate 94 interchange in Oak Creek.

Require WisDOT to complete repaving of Highway KP between Cross Plains and Mazomanie.

Work force development

Assembly budget

Direct the Department of Workforce Development to properly define what constitutes willful misclassification of workers.

Authorize DWD to impose $50 to $500 penalties on employers that fail to list deductions from an employee's pay.

Senate budget

Delete provision applying prevailing wage to plumbing, sprinkler, mechanical or pipe work employees working on public works projects.

Modify several prevailing wage definitions to more clearly define municipal, state or public involvement.

Delete prevailing wage requirements for construction work -- including dock walls, walkways, plazas and parks -- on the Milwaukee Riverwalk.