CAPITOL VIEW: STATE REPRESENTATIVE MARK POCAN
The legislature is nearing the end of its 1999-2000 session. Floor sessions
are scheduled for January/February, Most of March and one week in May. I
want to share with you several Democratic priorities that we need to act
upon and I am hopeful will become law.
* Helping senior citizen's pay for prescription drugs. Democrats are
planning to introduce legislation which will earmark $25 million annually to
help senior citizens pay for prescription drugs. Some senior citizens are
spending up to $1000 per month on drugs. We must find a way to help
individuals meet their personal medical needs without threatening their
financial security. I will be a co-sponsor of this legislation.
* Patients bill of rights. The Assembly passed a watered-down
patient's bill of rights late last year but the session ended before the
Senate could act. I anticipate that the Senate will take up this measure
and make the necessary changes that will strengthen the bill. I
co-sponsored a much stronger patient bill of rights which the Republicans
refused to send to the Assembly floor.
The current version of the bill allows patients to file an appeal if
an HMO refused to provide medical care. The independent review panel would
have the authority to order insurance companies to provide care. The
Assembly version requires patients that are filing an appeal to pay $50 and
the bill's threshold cost for treatment was $500 and $400 for emergency room
services.
I am hopeful that the final bill will eliminate the $50 filing fee
and lower the bill's threshold for treatment.
* Eliminating ATM fees. Currently banks are reimbursed from other
banks for ATM transaction fees when an individual uses an ATM that does not
belong to the their bank. In addition, many banks now charge the individual
a fee above and beyond the cost of covering the amount of the transaction.
Assembly Bill 131, which I am a co-sponsor of, prohibits a financial
institution that is an owner or operator of an ATM from charging a person a
fee for a transaction using that ATM, unless the transaction relates to or
affects an account held by that person with that financial institution.
A companion bill in the Senate passed out of committee on a party
line vote on February 2nd.
* Raising the minimum wage. Currently the minimum wage for most
workers in Wisconsin is $5.15 per hour. Senate Bill 193, which I am a
co-sponsor of, directs the Department of Workforce Development (DWD) to
calculate the minimum hourly wage by dividing the federal poverty line for a
family of three persons (federal poverty line) (currently $13,650 per year),
by 2,080 (52 weeks in a year times 40 hours per week), and rounding the
quotient to the nearest multiple of five cents. Accordingly, at the current
federal poverty line, this bill raises the minimum wage for employes
generally to $6.55 per hour.
* Domestic Partnership Benefits. Two bills that I have introduced
relate to domestic partnership benefits, Assembly bills 608 and 609.
Assembly Bill 608 provides requirements for forming a legal relationship of
domestic partnership. Under the bill, a domestic partnership may be formed
by two
individuals who are at least 18 years old and who are not married or
in another domestic partnership. The individuals may not be related to each
other by blood in any way that would prohibit them from marrying under the
laws of the state and must consider themselves to be members of each other's
immediate family. Once a couple has registered they are granted the same
rights and responsibilities associated with marriage.
Assembly Bill 609 provides that domestic partners of employes and annuitants
are eligible to receive coverage under the health care coverage plans
offered by the group insurance board and that state employes and state
annuitants are able to purchase the policies for their domestic partners.
* Reinstate the property tax/rent credit. Most of you have already
received your sales tax rebate check in the mail. One negative aspect of
the rebate check is that the governor used his veto power and eliminated the
property tax/rent credit (PTRC) to pay for this rebate. The impact of this
decision by the governor is that many people will actually see an increase
in their tax burden this year.
However, at the end of January the Assembly passed a bill to
reinstate the PTRC and the bill has been forwarded to the Senate. Because
of the public outcry and pressure from the Democrats, the governor, in his
State of the State address, indicated that he would sign the bill to
reinstate the PTRC when it comes to his desk. This is after he used his
line item veto to remove the credit from the budget.
* Newsletter and Survey:
You will soon receive or may have already received a newsletter from
my office, which includes a survey. I am very interested in hearing your
thoughts on a variety of issues. I would be grateful if you would take the
time fill out the survey and return it to my office. The newsletter will
also list upcoming town-hall meetings that I encourage all to attend.
* CHECK THIS OUT:
I have a new and exciting web page. It will have weekly updates on
legislative issues, a monthly "Golden Turkey Award" and a "Scooter (Scott)
Jensen watch". You can check it out at www.markpocan.com
<http://www.markpocan.com> .
As always, you can reach me at (phone) 266-8570, (e-mail)
mark.pocan@legis.state.wi.us <mailto:mark.pocan@legis.state.wi.us> or you
may write to P.O. Box 8953 Madison, WI 53708.