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Kreitlow Bills Move Forward on Final Day of Session

Friday, April 23, 2010

Bills making it easier for businesses to ID wetlands, helping local governments realize health care costs savings and legalizing the sale of raw milk move to Doyle for his signature

MADISON - On the final day of the 2010 legislative session, seven bills authored by Senator Pat Kreitlow (D-Chippewa Falls) moved through both houses of the legislature and on to the Governor for his signature. The bills are:

SB 304 and SB 578 are veteran related bills requested by constituents of Senator Kreitlow’s and Representative Kristen Dexter (D-Eau Claire), who is the co-author of the bill. SB 304 makes it easier for veterans participating in the Veterans Education program to get their college degree sooner and SB 578 adds a blinded veteran to the Wisconsin Council on Veterans Programs.

SB 426/AB 628 – This legislation, known as the Wired Data Bill, makes important property records easier for the public to access. This legislation was also co-authored by both Kreitlow and Dexter.

SB 434 – SB 434 allows farmers to sell raw milk or any product made from it directly to consumers on their own farms. In order to do so, farmers will have to secure a license from the Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection, and they must adhere to regular testing. In addition, every bottle must be clearly labeled as unpasteurized and include both the producer’s name and license number and all sales must be done on site, not through stores or distributors.

SB 557 – The Wetlands Identification Act establishes a program at the Department of Natural Resources for citizens to request a reading and copy of all available wetlands maps with a determination of the likelihood of wetlands on their property and gives them the option of requesting an on-site inspection of wetland boundaries on their property. Constituents and local businesses have faced costly modifications to existing projects because they lacked easy access to wetland information on this property, and this legislation protects not only property owners but one of our most precious natural resources, our wetlands.

SB 579 – Creates a public-private corporation to coordinate a statewide health information exchange, implementing the next step of the federal HITECH Act to further implement the use of electronic health records in Wisconsin. This infrastructure will allow Wisconsin health care providers to capture millions of dollars in incentives for improving healthcare quality and efficiency through the use of electronic health records, while protecting patient confidentiality, privacy, and security of the information.

SB 623 – This legislation requires the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection to process farmland preservation applications that had been submitted prior to July 1st of 2009 under the rules in place before July 1st, when changes made to the program as part of the state budget went into effect. The legislation was drafted at the request of constituents of the bills’ authors, Senator Kreitlow and Rep. Chris Danou (D-Trempealeau), who had submitted applications prior to July 1st with the understanding that they would be allowed to enter the program under the rules in place at the time their application was submitted.

SB 658 – A number of concerns were raised by the Government Accountability Board (GAB) during the implementation of the Impartial Justice Act earlier this year. These concerns and complications were unforeseen by the drafters while the bill was being considered for passage and SB 658 addresses those concerns, which are mostly technical in nature. The biggest issue is moving the official implementation date from December 31st of this year to May, giving GAB additional time to begin oversight of candidate fundraising activities.

“As the legislative session comes to an end, I’m proud of the work we’ve done to support veterans, help family farmers and other small businesses, increase access to quality health care and clean up Wisconsin Supreme Court campaigns,” said Kreitlow. “These final bills moving to the Governor for his signature are a fitting way to end a successful legislative session.”