The Transform Milwaukee Jobs program and the Transitional Jobs program, granting rule-making authority, and making appropriations. (FE)

To be eligible to participate in a program, an individual must be at least 18 years old, and, if over 24 years old, must be the parent or primary relative caregiver of a child under the age of 18. The individual must have household income below 150 percent of the poverty line, be unemployed for at least four weeks, be ineligible to receive unemployment insurance benefits, and not be participating in a Wisconsin Works (W-2) employment position. A program participant may be eligible for a child care subsidy under Wisconsin Shares, which generally provides child care subsidies for participants in W-2, if the program participant needs child care services in order to participate in the program.

DCF may administer a program or contract with any person, including a W-2 agency, county department, local workforce development board, or community action agency, to perform administrative functions, including determining eligibility, providing or identifying employers to provide jobs for eligible individuals, providing job orientation and employment services, and maintaining participant demographic, eligibility, and employment records. DCF may recover an overpayment from a participant that results from a misrepresentation about his or her eligibility, and must recover an overpayment from a contractor that results from a failure to comply with the contract or to meet performance standards established by DCF.

This bill replaces the Transform Milwaukee Jobs program and the Transitional Jobs program (former programs) with one statewide program called the Transitional Jobs program (TJP), established for the purposes of helping unemployed and underemployed persons gain, through wage-paying employment, the skills needed to move into unsubsidized employment and assisting employers to create new jobs.

To be eligible for TJP, an individual must be a state resident who is at least 18 years old, must have an annual household income below 200 percent of poverty, and must have been unemployed or employed for fewer than 30 hours per week, or any combination of those, for at least four consecutive weeks. In addition, the individual must sign an agreement to reimburse DCF for the amounts that DCF pays under the program to reimburse employers for costs attributable to the individual, except for any amounts that are paid for time the individual works at a job under TJP while the individual is also participating in a trial employment match program job under W-2.

DCF administers TJP and must promulgate rules for its operation, annually submit a report on its operation to the legislature and the governor, and conduct periodic evaluations of its effectiveness. In addition, DCF is required to contract with a person (contractor), which may include a W-2 agency, county department, local workforce development board, or community action agency, to perform administrative functions in each county, including determining eligibility, providing or identifying employers to provide jobs for eligible individuals, providing job orientation and employment services, and maintaining participant demographic, eligibility, and employment records.

Under TJP, if an eligible individual requests a transitional job (TJ) from the contractor in the county in which the individual resides, the individual must be offered a TJ if DCF has provided sufficient funding for the administration of TJP in that county. DCF must establish a waiting list if demand for jobs exceeds the funding available. While there is no limit on how long an individual may participate in TJP, an individual may work in any one TJ for a maximum of 1,040 hours actually worked.

An individual with a TJ must work at least eight hours per week but not more than 40 hours per week in the TJ, must wait at least four weeks between TJs, and, unless he or she has other employment in the regular labor market for at least 20 hours per week, must seek permanent employment in the regular labor market while working in a TJ and between TJs. As under the former programs, a TJP participant may be eligible for a child care subsidy under Wisconsin Shares if he or she needs child care services in order to participate in TJP.

Under TJP, an employer or contractor that employs a TJP participant must pay the participant for hours actually worked at not less than the federal or state minimum wage, whichever is higher. DCF must pay an employer or contractor that employs a TJP participant a subsidy that is equal to the federal or state minimum wage, whichever is higher, for each hour of work actually performed by the individual and for which the employer or contractor has paid the individual a wage, although the employer, or contractor with the approval of DCF, may pay the individual more than the wage subsidy. DCF must also pay the employer or contractor for costs incurred by the employer or contractor that are attributable to the employment of the individual for certain taxes, unemployment insurance contributions or taxes, and worker's compensation insurance premiums.

As under the former programs, DCF may recover an overpayment from a TJP participant resulting from a misrepresentation about eligibility and must recover an overpayment from a contractor resulting from a failure to comply with the contract or to meet performance standards. The bill requires the Legislative Audit Bureau periodically to perform both financial and performance evaluation audits of TJP. The bill appropriates $50,000,000 of general purpose revenue in fiscal year 2015-16 and $100,000,000 of general purpose revenue in fiscal year 2016-17 for TJP.