by Dan Rossmiller | Aug 14, 2020 | Federal Issue, Legislative Update Blog, State Issue
It has been an interesting week. Negotiations between the Congress and the White House in Washington DC over providing additional federal aid to schools, state and local governments, small businesses and more remain stalled. House Democrats, Senate Republicans, and the Trump Administration remain at odds over the size and content of the potential aid package.
As these talks stalled last week, President Trump signed several Executive Orders in the hopes of pressuring Congressional Democrats on several key issues at the center of the negotiations (issues mostly unrelated to K-12 education). These actions did not have the desired effect and most lawmakers in both chambers have returned to their states and districts as part of a previously planned August recess. It appears unlikely progress will be made over the next couple weeks as neither party wants to overshadow its national convention where they will want the spotlight to be on the presidential nominees. (more…)
by Dan Rossmiller | Aug 13, 2020 | Legislative Update Blog, State Issue, Uncategorized
Numerous school boards and their property taxpayers could be in for an unwelcome surprise when property tax bills arrive this December. This is due to errors made by the state Department of Revenue coupled with the Legislature’s failure to pass legislation to correct those errors.
This week, the state Department of Revenue (DOR) began notifying local taxing jurisdictions, including school districts, of what is likely to happen without legislative action to fix this problem.
In a blog post back in April, we detailed a letter we sent to legislative leaders urging them to pass Assembly Bill 753, which, as amended, would correct this problem. However, the Senate adjourned without taking up the bill.
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by Dan Rossmiller | Aug 12, 2020 | Federal Issue, Legislative Update Blog
With talks in Washington currently stalled over providing additional federal aid to schools, state and local governments and small businesses—and some key federal lawmakers indicating they intend to refuse to vote for additional federal COVID relief, including funding for schools, in part because money allocated by Congress for COVID-19 relief earlier this year remains unspent—a memo released recently by the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB) provides a timely look at this issue.
The LFB memo reports on how the Governor has allocated the $2 billion the state received from the federal Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) as part of the CARES Act. (Note: The CRF money described in the memo does not include the funding specifically allocated to K-12 education or higher education under the CARES Act. The CARES Act funding for education was provided under a separate allocation.) To date, the Governor has announced initiatives involving the allocation of $1.76 billion, including $190 million for local governments. At present, only $243.7 million of the state’s $2 billion in CARES Act funds remains unspent. Gov. Evers subsequently announced the creation of a new “dashboard” website that will provide regularly updated information regarding how and where Wisconsin is investing federal funding, including funding from the CARES Act. (more…)
by Dan Rossmiller | Aug 8, 2020 | Legislative Update Blog, State Issue, Uncategorized
As school boards finalize decisions about school reopening, the DPI is collecting survey information from Wisconsin districts that have finalized their reopening plans. (See survey form.) The request for this information went out to school districts in an email to district administrators last Monday (8/3).
The survey will remain open into early September to ensure the DPI is able to capture as many board decisions on reopening as possible. Results of this survey will be published by the DPI on its website.
It is our understanding that as of Friday noon (8/7), the Department had received responses from 197 districts.
by Dan Rossmiller | Aug 8, 2020 | Federal Issue, Legislative Update Blog, State Issue
Last Monday (August 3, 2020), President Trump signed into law S. 4209, the Catastrophic Cash Flow Strain Act of 2020.
This new law streamlines the process for reimbursable employer relief under the CARES Act. (School districts are among the entities that are deemed reimbursable employers for unemployment insurance purposes.)
This new law aims to ensure that employers such as states and local governments, including school districts, federally recognized tribes and nonprofit organizations that operate as reimbursing employers under state unemployment insurance systems and laid off or furloughed employees due to the Coronavirus pandemic can receive unemployment payment reimbursement relief under the CARES Act without bearing cash flow burdens that threaten their liquidity.
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