AB 889

This bill creates the Wisconsin Climate Corps (WCC) program to provide workers to assist with the restoration and rebuilding of natural lands, climate resiliency projects, and weatherization and energy efficiency projects in homes and to provide employment training and career pathways for underserved communities. The bill directs the Wisconsin Climate Corps Board, which is created under the bill and attached to the Department of Administration, to contract with a nonprofit corporation (manager) that has demonstrated experience in grant program writing and administration, natural resource restoration and rebuilding, and youth training, education, and employment to manage and administer the program. Under the bill, the manager must remain neutral with respect to any union organizing activities of workers in the program.

The bill provides that a WCC project must be designed to carry out a specific goal within a defined period of time and must be focused on the restoration and rebuilding of natural lands, weatherization and energy efficiency projects in homes, or other climate resiliency projects in urban and rural areas of this state.

The bill allows local governments, tribal governments, nonprofit corporations, and executive branch agencies to sponsor projects. The manager is required to administer the grant program, including reviewing applications, approving projects, and negotiating agreements with sponsors to provide work crews to complete eligible projects, and to submit an annual report to DOA regarding each project. The board may provide grants for projects approved by the manager. Under the bill, the cumulative amount of administrative costs in connection with a grant may not exceed 10 percent of the amount of the grant.

The bill provides a preference for work crew members on a WCC project who are at least 16 and not more than 30 years old. The bill requires that at least 50 percent of the work crew members on each project be from underserved populations in this state, as determined by the manager. The bill also provides that workers on projects must be paid at least $15 per hour worked and receive a housing stipend and health insurance coverage.

The bill requires each sponsor of a WCC project to erect a permanent plaque at each work site that is on property owned by the federal government, the state, a local government, a tribal government, or a nonprofit entity that identifies the site as a WCC project.

The bill allows DOA to retain its manager and allows other state agencies to engage a WCC crew on a project without complying with state procurement laws, including requirements for public notice to and competitive solicitation of contractors and limitations on the circumstances under which contractual services may be obtained.

Finally, the bill requires DOA to annually audit the program and submit an annual report to the legislature identifying the projects that were completed in each year or that are in the process of completion as of the end of that year.