Notes from the West Wing
By
State Representative Garey Bies
Legislation Wrap-Up
Now
that the legislature has had a few days to decompress after the completion of
the 2003-2004 Regular Session, I’d like to give you an update on a few
legislative proposals I worked on this session.
First is Assembly Bill 628, which
provides a property tax exemption for the Peninsula Players Theater.
I was approached this session by supporters of the Theater who requested
the legislation as the organization desired to invest further into the Theater
but were not financially secure enough to do so.
However, with a property tax exemption that was supported by both the
Town Board of the Town of Gibraltar and the Door County Board of Supervisors,
the Theater would be able to make those investments.
Assembly Bill 628 was passed by both the State Assembly and State Senate
and now awaits signature by the Governor.
Another proposal I am proud to
have worked on this session is Assembly Bill 693 that relates to the
qualifications of a clinical social worker.
This legislation was a real no-brainer!
Current law prohibits the licensure of a clinical social worker unless
the applicant completed supervised clinical studies (field training) as part of
their master’s or doctorate degree program.
So if an applicant did not complete their clinical fieldwork as part of
their post-graduate degree, they could never be a licensed clinical social
worker! So, with support of both
the State Department of Regulation and Licensing and the National Association of
Social Workers, I introduced AB 693 that would allow an applicant to be a
licensed clinical social worker provided they had completed qualifying
supervised clinical field training but regardless of whether this training had
been part of a postgraduate degree program.
This legislation also passed both houses and now awaits the Governor’s
signature.
Unfortunately, Assembly Bill 923
that I talked about in the previous Notes from the West Wing and dealt with the
treatment for non-violent drug offenders as opposed to putting them in jail,
failed to be approved by the Assembly during the final 11th hour push
of the session. Its delay, although
unfortunate was understandable. The
legislation dealt with millions of dollars and the legislature’s fiscal
committee, Joint Finance, did not have an opportunity to review the proposal and
its potential impact on the state. This proposal, though delayed, is not “dead.”
We will be back at the beginning of the next session.
This issue is important to me, and I think it is important to the state
and to those who could benefit by it.
The last proposal of mine I’ll
mention today is Assembly Bill 618 that would allow individuals to contribute to
the Stewardship Fund. This was a
simple piece of legislation that simply got caught up in the Natural Resources
Committee. The Committee ultimately
approved the legislation unanimously, but by that time, it was too late in the
session to schedule the proposal for consideration on the floor.
So these four proposals are a
sampling of legislation that I was involved with. They are good examples of both proposals ultimately making it
through the long legislative process as well as of those proposals that came up
a bit short.
As always, if you have questions or comments on this column or any other topic you might see or read in the news, I can be reached by e-mail at Rep.Bies@legis.state.wi.us or by telephone, toll-free at 1-888-482-0001.