AB 417 - Scheduled for Executive Session in Assembly Committee on Judiciary and Ethics – March 1.

AB 418 – Passed by the Assembly Committee on Homeland Security and State Affairs and the full Assembly.

AB 419 – Passed by the Assembly Committee on Homeland Security and State Affairs and the full Assembly.

The 3 companion bills (SBs 294, 295, and 296) are awaiting an Executive Committee hearing in the Senate Committee on Judicary, Utilities, Commerce, and Government Operations.

 Background:

2/17 – Update 6, Legislative Update

2/09 – Update 5, ABs 418 and 419 Earn Unanimous Approval

2/02 – Update 4, Testimony on AB 417

1/26 – Testimony on SBs 294, 295, and 296

1/24 – Update 3

1/18 – Testimony on AB 419

1/18 – Testimony on AB 418

1/17 -Update 2

12/01 – Update 1

What would these bills do?

AB 417/SB 294 establishes a uniform review process in the event that an unclaimed property claimant disagrees with the administrator’s decision regarding the status of a claim.

AB 418/SB 295 requires heirfinders to submit a copy of their agreement with the unclaimed property owner to the Unclaimed Property Program for purposes of legal verification.

AB 419/SB 296 allows the Unclaimed Property Administrator to assess a 12% interest penalty on unclaimed property holders who willfully neglect to turn over unclaimed property to my office. The statute used to require the administrator to assess an 18% interest penalty. The added discretion this statute gives to the Unclaimed Property Administrator will allow my office to increase compliance with holder reporting laws through education, without penalizing businesses who found themselves in violation through ignorance of the law.

Image via Wikipedia

Recently, I was reading an article written by Alex Tabarrok in The Atlantic magazine about our country’s immigration policy that left me scratching my head.  It seems that U.S. policy regarding what many would consider the world’s best and brightest as counterintuitive.

It is well known that our colleges and universities welcome students from across the world to study and learn.  These students come for a premiere education, and the cost does not come cheap.  Still, our nation’s immigration policy does little to help keep these recent graduates in the United States.

Consider the following: every year the United States authorizes approximately 140,000 employment visas for immigrants with graduate degrees, professional degrees, and other skills.  With a workforce of 150 million, the number of skill based visas is incredibly low.  To make matters worse, these 140,000 visas must also cover the spouses and children of that high-skilled worker.  The result is that these highly skilled immigrants can wait years before they are granted a visa.  What is likely the most egregious part, is that there is a cap on the number of visas allowed per country regardless of the size of its population.  This means that the same number of visas - 2,803 -are allocated to Spain, Senegal and Singapore as are allocated to China and India with populations over 1 billion people.

Why wouldn’t the U.S. want to attract and retain those immigrants that have the skills that to grow our economy.  According to the article, 25% of the new companies in the technology and science fields are founded by immigrants who are often graduates of our universities.  These immigrants and the firms they found create more jobs and higher wages for Americans.

Currently, immigration policy does little to keep high-skilled immigrants.  While the U.S. limits high skill visas to 140,000, we welcome over 1.1 million legal immigrants each year. One of the best ways for the United States to remain competitive is to change our focus on immigration from family-based to a work-based system.

The U.S. could establish a system that would provide foreign-born students that graduate with advance degrees from American colleges and universities a path to permanent residency.  America has taught and trained these students to become the best and the brightest, we should be doing what we can to benefit from this investment.  This is especially true in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. As our economy continues to evolve into an intellectual economy, those nations with the brightest and most creative stand to grow and prosper.  The U.S. must take steps to ensure that we are truly the land of opportunity.

Related articles

• Immigration policy changes could bolster economy, report says (newsok.com)

On Monday I joined Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and many of the staff members from the Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corporation (WWBIC) to celebrate Wisconsin Saves Week (February 19-26), part of the larger America Saves initiative. I had the honor of presenting the proclamation from Governor Walker that declared this week to be Wisconsin Saves Week, and I enjoyed the opportunity to talk about the value of saving for the future.

Having goals is important to successful saving!

Saving for the future can be tough – especially in economically difficult tiems. It’s easy to feel alone or confused. Luckily their are tools available to help make your savings goals a reality. You can access them at http://www.wisconsin-saves.org/ .

Successful saving is the first step down the path to a successful future. Start saving today!

Related Article:

WWBIC

I am calling on state legislators to vote on the Joint Resolution that would eliminate my office and the Office of Secretary of State. I helped draft the bill as soon as I took the oath of office in January of 2011. It has passed through committee and is waiting for debate on the Assembly Floor. 

This was my promise to Wisconsin Taxpayers. I told them I would attempt to eliminate my job and the Secretary of State to save money. It has been nearly a year since the bill was introduced and if it isn’t taken up soon, we could face the possibility of having another election for these offices in 2014.

Because the Joint Resolution requires a change to Wisconsin’s Constitution, both the Assembly and Senate must pass the amendment in two concurrent sessions with no changes. After that, it will go before the voters. The earliest that could happen is 2013. If a majority of voters approves the amendment, the State Treasurer and Secretary of State will end their terms on the first Monday in January 2015.

I have already promised to not run for re-election  if AJR 26 does not pass.

Columbia County

Victor Shaul – Wisconsin Dells

Oceana Smith – Wisconsin Dells

Ingrid Irving – Portage

Earl McMahon – Portage

Thomas Schwink – Columbus

 If you or someone you know is on this list, please let them know they need to make a claim with the office. They can also call us at 855-375-CASH

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• More than $20 Million in Unclaimed Property Reported This Year (wistatetreasury.wordpress.com)
• Treasurer’s Top 5 – Kenosha County (wistatetreasury.wordpress.com)
• Unclaimed Property and your public school libraries (wistatetreasury.wordpress.com)
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*The Economy and You: Prince Fielder and Opportunity Cost

*Wisconsin Veterans can claim nearly $700,000

*5 Good Reasons to open and EdVest account

Click here to view this month’s newsletter!

Background:

2/09 – Update 5, ABs 418 and 419 Earn Unanimous Approval

2/02 – Update 4, Testimony on AB 417

1/26 – Testimony on SBs 294, 295, and 296

1/24 – Update 3

1/18 – Testimony on AB 419

1/18 – Testimony on AB 418

1/17 -Update 2

12/01 – Update 1

The best part of the story is the fact that the $76,000 is just the beginning. We’ve identified and sent claim forms to almost 3,000 veterans who have not yet claimed their money.

Fielder Coming Up (Photo credit: Jibby7)

One of the most fundamental economic concepts is opportunity cost. Opportunity cost is the alternatives we give up when we make a choice or decision.  Almost all decisions involve trade-offs.  The total “cost” of selecting a specific choice has to include what was given up by not choosing the next best alternative. The opportunity cost of going to college must include the income that would have been earned by working instead of going to school.  The opportunity cost of watching television includes the time that could have been spent doing other things.  From a society standpoint, the opportunity cost of purchasing more parkland would include other government goods and services that could have been purchased like a snow plow truck or another police officer.

These opportunity costs exist because resources are limited (scarce is the term most used). Time, which is one of our most important resources, is limited.  Everyone has only 24 hours in a day, and must decide what activities they want to do during that time.  By doing so, people make decisions that have opportunity costs.

Opportunity costs are often easier to understand with a numerical example. So, in this example, I will use the Milwaukee Brewers and Prince Fielder.  In 2011, the Brewers paid Fielder $15.5 million.  The $15.5 million salary made up roughly 18% of the entire team payroll of $85.5 million. At the end of last season, The Brewers decided that it was unlikely that they would be able to reach a contract agreement with Prince Fielder regarding salary. It was recently announced that Fielder and the Detroit Tigers came to an agreement that pays Fielder $214 million over 9 years.  This averages out to approximately $24 million per year.

Major league teams have two important resources when signing players.  The first resource is money.  If the Brewers had signed Fielder at the $214 million price tag, they would have had little left to sign other players.  The money that is left from not signing Fielder is an opportunity cost. If the Brewer team payroll remained at $85.5 million, Prince’s salary would make up 28% of the entire team payroll.

Second, Major League Baseball allows only 25 spots on a team roster.  If the Brewers had signed Prince to a $214 million contract, the money remaining to hire players would most likely be insufficient to sign experienced players.  It would be difficult to maintain the salaries for players like Ryan Braun, Zach Greinke, Corey Hart, and others with salaries well above $5 million per year. This would leave the Brewers having to fill their roster with minor league players with little or no big league experience.  Therefore, the opportunity cost of signing Prince Fielder would not only be the money unavailable to sign other players, but the cost of having to use less experienced players to fill the roster.

Whether the Brewers made the right decision, can always be argued, but the opportunity costs can be identified and quantified fairly easily.

Door County

Gerald Haft – Ellison Bay

Vivian Hansen – Egg Harbor

Bettina Delzell – Sister Bay

Gregory Hamming – Egg Harbor

Barbara Schreiber – Fish Creek

 If you or someone you know is on this list, please let them know they need to make a claim with the office. They can also call us at 855-375-CASH (2247)

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• Treasurer’s Top 5: Clark County (wistatetreasury.wordpress.com)
• Treasurer’s Top 5: Fond du Lac County (wistatetreasury.wordpress.com)
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