SB 690

This bill creates a Wisconsin conservation corps (WCC) program that seeks to

protect, enhance, and provide access to Wisconsin's natural heritage and encourage

and enable young people to learn the value of work in a natural setting by providing

employment training and career pathways. The bill also creates a WCC Board,

which is the policy-making body of the WCC and is attached to the Department of

Administration (DOA). The WCC Board consists of the secretary of natural

resources or his or her designee; the executive secretary of the Board of

Commissioners of Public Lands; two representatives to the assembly, appointed as

are members of assembly standing committees; two senators, appointed as are

members of senate standing committees; one member of a nongovernmental

organization that has expertise in conservation matters or that represents

employees who work in conservation activities, for a three-year term; two members

of the faculty employed by a technical college district board, appointed by the state

Technical College System Board, for three-year terms; one member representing the

University of Wisconsin-Extension, for a three-year term; and one member of a

nongovernmental organization that has expertise in youth training programs, for a

three-year term.

Under the bill, DOA provides staff services to the board. The bill directs the

board to enter into an agreement with a nonprofit corporation that has demonstrated

experience in natural resource conservation and youth training to manage and

administer the WCC program. The manager then engages, trains, and supervises

work crews to carry out each project. The manager also identifies, reviews, and

recommends proposed projects for the approval of the board. The bill requires the

board to ensure that projects are equally distributed across technical college districts

to the greatest extent possible, and to ensure that at least one project is located in

each technical college district in each year.

To finance the operation of the WCC Board and program, the bill permits the

secretary of administration to transfer any amount of money appropriated from a

sum certain appropriation to an executive branch agency to the board during the

period beginning on the day the bill becomes law and ending on the date of

publication of the 2011-13 biennial budget act, subject to certain limitations. The

secretary is prohibited from making any transfer of moneys derived from federal

revenues and is also prohibited from making a transfer if the transfer would violate

the state or federal constitution, state or federal law, or a requirement imposed by

the federal government as a condition to receipt of aids by this state. In addition, the

secretary is prohibited from transferring certain moneys appropriated to the

Department of Transportation. Any proposed transfer must first be reported by the

secretary to the cochairpersons of the Joint Committee on Finance and is subject to

review, approval, or modification by the committee, but the committee may waive its

right to review a proposed transfer.