Wisconsin Legislature Voting on State COVID-19 Package This Week

Wisconsin legislative leaders released their draft COVID-19 relief bill on Monday. The State Assembly will meet on Tuesday to pass the bill and the State Senate plans to meet on Wednesday. 

While the proposal does not include a provision allowing the Joint Finance Committee to cut state funding without the Governor's approval, it does include language allowing the Committee to transfer up to $75 million between sum sufficient appropriation accounts.

The following are items of interest to WEMTA included in the bill:

Board of Commissioners of Public Lands

BCPL Loans for Utilities: Authorizes the BCPL to loan money from the School Trust Funds to municipal utilities to ensure that municipal utilities are able to maintain liquidity during the COVID-19 public health emergency. A municipal utility is a public utility that is a city, village, or town, or that is wholly owned or operated by a city, village, or town. Interest from BCPL loans go into the Common School Fund.

Legislature and General Government

Joint Finance Committee Fund Transfers: Authorizes the Joint Finance Committee to transfer up to $75 million total between sum sufficient appropriations during the COVID-19 public health emergency and for 90 days following the emergency. 

Suspension of deadlines and training requirements: Authorizes state agencies, authorities, local governments, the legislature, and the courts to suspend, during the COVID-19 public health emergency, any deadlines and training requirements that they administer or enforce.

Education 

Reports on Virtual Instruction and School Operations: Requires each Wisconsin school board to submit a report to DPI by November 1, 2020 on the implementation of virtual instruction, which includes:

• Whether or not virtual instruction was implemented as a result of the public health emergency
• The process for implementing the virtual instruction
• For each grade level, the average percentage of the 2019-20 school year curriculum provided to pupils, including curriculum provided in-person and virtually
• Whether anything was provided to pupils during the 2020 summer to help pupils learn content that pupils missed because of the public health emergency
• Recommendations for best practices for transitioning to and providing virtual instruction when schools are closed
• Any challenges or barriers the school board faced related to implementing virtual instruction during the public health emergency

Schools are also required to report on the number of staff who were laid off, the number of lunches provided, and the amount of certain expenditure reductions. 

Best Practice for Returning to In-person Instruction: Requires DPI to post guidance on their website by June 30, 2020 on best practices for returning to in-person instruction. 

Statewide Student Assessments: Exempts schools from administering the Wisconsin Student Assessment System exams and the third grade reading test during the 2019-20 school year. 

Educator Effectiveness Evaluations: Prohibits schools from considering pupil performance on statewide assessments in evaluating teachers and principals in the 2019-20 school year.

School and School District Accountability Report: Prohibits DPI from publishing a school and school district accountability report in the 2020-21 school year.

Open Enrollment Deadlines: Extends the deadlines for the open enrollment program by 30 days. For example, it extends the deadline for students to apply to attend a non-resident school district through the Open Enrollment program to May 29, 2020. 

Waiver of Laws and Rules Related to the School Choice Program: Allows DPI to waive state education statutes, or rules promulgated under those statutes, related to the school choice program, the Special Needs Scholarship Program or charter schools. It also provides the following exemptions:

• Creates a process for private schools to submit a request to DPI to waive any requirement related to hours of instruction.
• Extends the application deadline for students to apply to attend a school choice school through May 14, 2020. Extends the deadline for private schools to submit information to DPI about the number of applications they receive from the school choice program to May 29, 2020. 
• Prohibits DPI from withholding program payments or baring a private school from the choice program or Special Needs Scholarship Program if the private school demonstrates to DPI that the failure to comply with certain program requirements was due to the COVID-19 school closure.
• Exempts private school participating in the choice program from the requirement to maintain a cash and investment balance that is at least equal to its reserve balance. 

Wisconsin Retirement System and Public Employee Benefits 

Rehired Annuitants in Critical Positions: Specifies that a Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) participant who is hired by a participating employer during the COVID-19 public health emergency may elect to not suspend his or her annuity for the duration of the public health emergency if: (a) at the time of terminating employment, the participant does not have an agreement with any participating employer to return to employment or enter into a contract to provide employee services; and (b) the position for which the annuitant is hired is a critical position. Further, specify that the current break-in-service requirement of 75 days would not apply to a participant who is hired for a critical position during the public health emergency if at least 15 days have elapsed between the termination of employment and becoming a participating employee. Require the head of each state agency and each local health department, based on guidance provided by the Secretary of the Department of Health Services, to determine which positions within the respective state agency or local government are critical, for the purposes of administering the provisions applicable to rehired annuitants. 

Leaves of Absence and Health Insurance: For the purposes of group health insurance coverage offered by the Group Insurance Board, an employee who returns from a leave of absence and who has not resumed active duty for at least 30 consecutive calendar days during the COVID-19 public health emergency is deemed to have ended or interrupted the leave of absence on March 12, 2020. 

Government Operations

Waiving In-person Appearance Requirement: Allows a state entity to waive any requirement that an individual appear in person during the COVID-19 public health emergency. 

Insurance

Coverage of COVID-19 Testing without Cost-Sharing: Requires health plans to cover COVID-19 testing without imposing any copayment or coinsurance by March 13, 2021.

Insurance Discrimination: Prohibits insurers from implementing special rules, cancelling coverage, setting rates based on a current or past diagnosis of COVID-19. 

Prohibits Prior Authorization for Prescription Refills: Prohibits insurers or pharmacy benefit managers from requiring prior authorization for early prescription drug refills or imposing limits on the quantity of prescription drugs that may be obtained if the quantity is no more than a 90-day supply and the drug is not a controlled substance. 

Unemployment Insurance 

Waiver of One-week Waiting Period: Temporarily suspends the one-week waiting period for Unemployment Benefits from March 12, 2020 to February 7, 2021. 

Taxes

Student Loan Payments Made by Employers: Provides an exclusion from income for certain student loan principal and interest payments made by an employer on behalf of an employee, subject to the same current law cap of $5,250 in payments for qualified educational expenses made on behalf of an employee by an employer. This provision applies to payments made from March 28, 2020, through December 31, 2020.