Month: October 2024

Yesterday, the Wisconsin Department of Administration (DOA) announced the state of Wisconsin ended Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 with a positive balance of $4.6 billion. In addition, the state saw its ‘rainy day’ fund (Budget Stabilization Fund) increase to a record-high $1.9 billion, according to the new Annual Fiscal Report released by DOA.

“We’re proud of the prudent fiscal management that the state of Wisconsin continues to demonstrate under the guidance of Gov. Evers, year in and year out,” said DOA Secretary Kathy Blumenfeld. “Ending the year with a healthy reserve and record high rainy-day fund positions us well for the future and being able to respond to the needs of the people of Wisconsin.”

The full FY 2024 Annual Fiscal Report, which ended on June 30, 2024, is available here, and noteworthy items include:

• The state’s undesignated general fund balance at the end of FY 2024 was $4.6 billion. While the ending balance is $821.3 million higher than estimated, budget figures for FY 2024 included a $423.3 million transfer from the state General Fund to the Capital Improvement Fund that will occur in FY 2025.
• The current Budget Stabilization Fund balance increased to $1.9 billion, the largest figure in the state’s history and over $1.5 billion higher than the balance at the end of FY 2018.
• State general fund tax collections in FY 2024 increased by 1.7 percent over the prior year and were 1.3 percent higher than estimated.

Yesterday, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) announced that due to prolonged drought conditions and potential for elevated fire danger throughout the fall, the agency is reinstating DNR burning permits by issuing a Special Fire Order in 13 Wisconsin counties.

The permit reinstatement will begin at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, October 15, 2024, in designated DNR protection areas until further notice.

The permit reinstatement applies to the following 13 extensive DNR protection area counties outside incorporated cities and villages: all of Columbia, Crawford, Green Lake, Marquette, Portage, Richland, Sauk, Waupaca and Waushara counties and portions of Oconto, Dane, Grant and Iowa counties.

A DNR annual burning permit is now required for burning in a barrel, a debris pile and grass or wooded areas as outlined by the permit, unless the ground is completely snow-covered. Before burning in these areas, anyone wishing to burn must obtain a DNR burn permit and then visit WisBURN for the current burn restrictions.

Traditionally, DNR burn permits are required in extensive protection areas from January 1 through May 31, anytime the ground is not snow-covered. Reinstating permits allows the DNR to restrict burning on a given day during times of elevated fire danger.

A DNR burn permit is not required for campfires intended for cooking or warming, but the public is reminded to use extreme caution. Consider having small campfires in a designated fire ring or device in the evening hours to avoid burning under elevated fire conditions, which are typically found during the day.

The DNR intends to keep the permit requirements in place until the drought situation improves significantly, either due to long-term rain or snow events. The DNR prescribed burn program will also pause activity this week due to the elevated fire weather conditions. The DNR will continue to evaluate as conditions change.

Wisconsin saw a 2.1% increase in its general sales and use tax collections in the first quarter of the new fiscal year in numbers released Thursday.

The state collected more than $1.32 billion after collecting $1.29 billion during the same period last year. The numbers represent collections from July through September.

Overall, the state collected an adjusted amount of $4.15 billion in general purpose revenue during the first quarter, up from $3.97 billion in the first quarter of last fiscal year.

Wisconsin collected $21.3 billion last fiscal year, ending in June, after collecting nearly $21 billion the year before.

The numbers represent a continuation of a trend of slowed growth in sales tax revenue for the state in the post-COVID timeframe.

The state collected $2.73 billion in state sales taxes over the first five months of 2024, a 0.4% increase over the $2.72 billion in the same five months the year before, according to Wisconsin Policy Forum.

“The retail sector contributes the largest amount in sales tax revenues by far,” the group said in July. “In calendar year 2023, Wisconsin reported a total of $7.22 billion in sales tax revenues; $3.47 billion of that – or 48.0% – came from retail. Consequently, even though growth in the retail sector was limited (0.6%), that growth accounts for almost the entirety of sales tax revenue growth in Wisconsin during the first five months of 2024.”

The consumer price index, a broad gauge measuring the costs of goods and services across the U.S. economy, increased a seasonally adjusted 0.2% for the month, putting the annual inflation rate at 2.4%.

The annual inflation rate was 0.1 percentage point lower than August and is the lowest since February 2021.

Excluding food and energy, core prices increased 0.3% on the month, putting the annual rate at 3.3%. Both core readings also were 0.1 percentage point above forecast.

Much of the inflation increase — more than three-quarters of the move higher — came from a 0.4% jump in food prices and a 0.2% gain in shelter costs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said in the release. That offset a 1.9% fall in energy prices.

Other items contributing to the gain included a 0.3% increase in used vehicle costs and a 0.2% rise in new vehicles. Medical care services were up 0.7% and apparel prices surged 1.1%.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers’ creative use of his expansive veto power in an attempt to lock in a school funding increase for 400 years comes before the state Supreme Court on Wednesday.

A key question facing the liberal-controlled court is whether state law allows governors to strike digits to create a new number as Evers did with the veto in question.

The case, supported by the Republican-controlled Legislature, is the latest flashpoint in a decades-long fight over just how broad Wisconsin’s governor’s partial veto powers should be. The issue has crossed party lines, with Republicans and Democrats pushing for more limitations on the governor’s veto over the years.

In this case, Evers made the veto in question in 2023. His partial veto increased how much revenue K-12 public schools can raise per student by $325 a year until 2425. Evers took language that originally applied the $325 increase for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years and instead vetoed the “20” and the hyphen to make the end date 2425, more than four centuries from now.

The lawsuit asks the court to strike down Evers’ partial veto and declare that the state constitution forbids the governor from striking digits to create a new year or to remove language to create a longer duration than the one approved by the Legislature.

Wisconsin’s partial veto power was created by a 1930 constitutional amendment, but it’s been weakened over the years, including in reaction to vetoes made by former governors, both Republicans and Democrats.

Voters adopted constitutional amendments in 1990 and 2008 that removed the ability to strike individual letters to make new words — the “Vanna White” veto — and the power to eliminate words and numbers in two or more sentences to create a new sentence — the “Frankenstein” veto.

The lawsuit before the court on Wednesday contends that Evers’ partial veto is barred under the 1990 constitutional amendment prohibiting the “Vanna White” veto, named the co-host of the game show Wheel of Fortune who flips letters to reveal word phrases.

But Evers, through his attorneys at the state Department of Justice, argued that the “Vanna White” veto ban applies only to striking individual letters to create new words, not vetoing digits to create new numbers.

With four weeks left until Election Day, Wisconsinites have already been inundated with campaign ads from candidates for state and national races.

But several nonpartisan and bipartisan groups focused on promoting election security are hoping to break up the barrage with an encouragement for everyone to cast their ballot this November.

LeaderEthics, WisAct and Keep Our Republic released a series of public service announcements on Monday. The video and radio messages urge residents to disregard political misinformation or scare tactics and have confidence in exercising their right to vote.

The announcements feature former Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle and former Republican Gov. Scott McCallum, as well as Wisconsin Elections Commission administrator Meagan Wolfe and former leaders of the Universities of Wisconsin and Wisconsin Technical College System.

“We need to remind people that it’s important as citizens to make sure that they don’t miss the opportunity to vote and it’s not partisan,” said Lee Rasch, founder of LeaderEthics. “The best thing we could have in this election year is a good, solid turnout, regardless of who wins.”

A strike by tens of thousands of dockworkers on the East and Gulf coasts, that could have seriously hurt the U.S. economy had it continued, has been called off.

All workers were called back to work Thursday, after a three-day strike, following a tentative agreement on wages between the International Longshoremen’s Association and the United States Maritime Alliance, representing ocean carriers and port operators.

The two sides have agreed to a 62% wage increase over six years, according to sources who were familiar with the deal but not authorized to speak publicly about it. The union had been seeking a 77% increase over six years. A day before the strike began, the companies had offered nearly 50% in raises.

The parties have also agreed to extend the existing contract until Jan. 15, 2025. They will return to the bargaining table to negotiate all other outstanding issues, including the union’s demand of a ban on all automation at the ports.

The affected ports — from Boston to Houston — normally handle more than half of all cargo containers coming into the U.S., or about a million containers a month, as well as more than 300,000 containers heading out of the country, according to the freight-tracking company Vizion.

Effective immediately, all work will resume, the two sides said in a joint statement. But it could take some days to clear the backlog of ships — scores of them — that were waiting offshore for the strike to end.

In a statement, Jay Timmons, President of the National Association of Manufacturers said manufacturers were encouraged that cooler heads had prevailed.

“It is a victory for all parties involved—preserving jobs, safeguarding supply chains and preventing further economic disruptions,” Timmons wrote.

Ahead of the holiday season, retailers also expressed relief.

“Without the specter of disruption looming, the U.S. economy can continue on its path for growth and retailers can focus on delivering for consumers,” the Retail Industry Leaders Association said in a statement.

Three of the state’s major utilities are planning to spend almost $2 billion on five renewable energy projects as part of their plans to cut carbon emissions and shift to clean energy.

We Energies, Wisconsin Public Service and Madison Gas and Electric filed plans with the Public Service Commission to acquire and build facilities that would cost around $1.9 billion combined. The five projects are expected to power about 250,000 homes. They include 500 megawatts of solar, around 180 megawatts of wind and 100 megawatts of battery storage.

We Energies would own 80 percent of the projects. WPS and MGE would each own 10 percent.

We Energies and WPS, which are owned by WEC Energy Group, plan to invest nearly $8 billion in renewable energy, natural gas projects and storage in Wisconsin. The Milwaukee-based company said it’s part of a larger plan to save customers more than $2 billion over the next two decades.

Utilities say renewable projects will also help reduce costs in the face of new regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency that require coal plants to reduce 90 percent of their emissions by 2039.

However, consumer advocates like Wisconsin’s Citizens Utility Board, or CUB, have voiced concerns about the pace and cost of the transition as utilities like We Energies retire coal plants and invest in renewable energy.

The utility is currently asking to raise electric rates 6.9 percent in 2025 and nearly 4.8 percent in 2026, which is due in large part to its energy transition. In a filing, CUB said that means customers would pay about 36 percent more or roughly $40 extra per month on their electric bills in 2026 compared to December 2022.

Construction work on a high-voltage transmission linking Iowa and Wisconsin has been completed and the line is fully operational, a group of utilities announced September 27.

American Transmission Company, Dairyland Power Cooperative and ITC Midwest began work on the 102-mile Cardinal-Hickory Creek line between Iowa’s Dubuque County and Wisconsin’s Dane County in April 2021. Construction wrapped up late the previous week, ITC Midwest spokesperson Rod Pritchard said. The 345-kilovolt line was fully energized on September 26.

The utilities say the line will improve electrical reliability and support renewable energy projects.