Legislative Session Wrap-Up

As this review of the 2007-08 legislative session is being written the legislature has not technically and officially completed their work. The governor has called a special session of the legislature to deal with a $527 million shortfall in the 2007-09 state budget, so the legislature obviously still has some “unfinished” business.

Governor Doyle submitted his budget repair bill to the legislature over a month ago. The Assembly completed their work on the budget on March 12 before adjourning for the remainder of the year. Both the Assembly and Senate's version of the budget “fix” is markedly different from what the governor originally submitted. Although no one is predicting another 4+ month waiting period like what happened last summer and fall before agreement was reached on the entire budget, we are looking at another extended session and a (possibly) contentious conference committee before the legislature (and the governor) reach agreement on the budget repair bill. Therefore, as a result of all this activity it is almost certain both the Assembly and the Senate will have to come back later this year to vote on, and pass an identical version of the budget repair bill before it goes back to the governor for his consideration.

Except for the budget repair bill, action has been completed on all other legislation. At this point, if individual pieces of legislation have not passed both houses (in identical form) and have been sent to the governor for his consideration, they are dead and will have to be re-introduced next session (January, 2009).

In addition to working to insure the 2007-09 budget contained no unanticipated “surprises” for the WFDA, we worked hard to accomplish two initiatives of particular interest to the association's membership:

1) Tax Exemption for Products used in Cremation

We worked very hard on this issue and were able to hold substantive meetings with both the Department of Revenue and the Governor's Office. In both meetings, the governor's staff allowed us to make our points and seemed genuinely interested in working with us. Although this item was never formally introduced during this past legislative session, we will work hard to get it included as part of the next budget cycle, the work on which will begin in January, 2009. In addition, strong consideration will be given to also introducing a separate, stand-alone piece of legislation as a means of achieving this goal.

2) Reimbursement for Indigent Funeral Costs (Part of the Budget Bill)

As all of you are aware, we have worked hard to pass legislation that would allow an increase in the amount that can be spent on an (indigent) funeral without negatively affecting the reimbursement available from the state for such funerals. While Sen. Robson held the important and powerful position as Senate Majority Leader we were continually frustrated in our efforts to convince her that an increase in the amount spent would have no (fiscal) effect on the cost associated with the reimbursement from the state. When the Democratic caucus (the majority party) in the Senate voted to replace Sen. Robson with Sen. Russ Decker as Majority Leader, our efforts to make this point became somewhat easier (i.e. it was obvious that Sen. Decker understood the point we were trying to make).

In addition, both Senator Scott Fitzsgerald, Minority Leader in the Senate, and Rep. Jeff Fitzsgerald, Majority Leader in the Assembly, understand and support our efforts to allow an increase in the amount of money spent on indigent funerals without decreasing the level of state reimbursement.

Much like the approach we will be taking to achieve a tax exemption for products used in cremation, during the next budget cycle (again the work on which begins in January, 2009), we plan on pursuing a two-pronged approach to achieve this goal. We will work to have this issue included in the 2009-11 budget and we will be submitting separate legislation to allow for an increase in the amount spent on indigent funerals.