Bills to open the door to online gaming in Wisconsin, give money to UW-Madison to help pay athletes and provide new grants for PFAS cleanup are set to go to the governor today.
Gov. Tony Evers is also set to receive legislation that would exempt tips from the state income tax and another bill that would do the same with overtime. And he’s to get a Senate bill that would repeal his 400-year veto on school spending limits.
Once the legislation lands on his desk, it will kick off a seven-day window for Evers to act on the bills.
There are three ways for legislation that’s cleared both houses to head to the governor, beginning the countdown for action. The Legislature can send him the bills, or the governor can call for them. Otherwise, there are triggers built into each session calendar for enrolled bills to head over, and tomorrow is the last one of the regular session.
The governor called for 21 bills yesterday, including AB 596 and 597, which would create a state matching grant program for nonprofits that receive federal money for housing homeless veterans. Republicans authored the bills following the shutdown of facilities in Green Bay and Chippewa Falls to house homeless vets amid fingerpointing between Evers and GOP lawmakers.
The batch of bills sent over also includes AB 619, an incentive package meant to land a biofuels manufacturing plant in northern Wisconsin, and AB 657, a sales tax exemption for nuclear fusion technology projects.
In all, 71 bills that originated in the Assembly and 44 from the Senate are scheduled to go to Evers today, according to lists the chief clerks’ offices provided to WisPolitics early this afternoon.
Perhaps the most high-profile bill going to Evers is AB 601, which would expand the definition of a bet under Wisconsin law to allow online gaming. It would allow the governor to reopen gaming compacts with Wisconsin tribes to allow them to offer the option so long as the servers handling the bets were on tribal land.
In a letter to Evers and the state Senate last month, eight of the state’s 11 federally recognized tribes voiced support for the legislation and asked that it be enacted into law. The tribes that didn’t sign the letter were the Menominee Indian Tribe, Oneida Nation and Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.
Evers hasn’t publicly committed to signing the bill into law, telling reporters last month he wanted to ensure all tribal nations are involved in the conversation.
“I’m hopeful that we can get something done, but I also am very concerned about the fact that apparently not all the tribal nations are with this,” he said.
See the list of Assembly bills that went to Evers yesterday.
See the Assembly bills scheduled to go to Evers today.
See the list of Senate bills scheduled to go to Evers today.