Fiscal Note
The fiscal effect of this proposed ordinance is indeterminate. Allowing employees in compensation groups 18 (professional and supervisory) and 44 (transit professional and supevisory) to reside outside of Dane County may broaden the pool of candidates associated with filling positions in these compensation groups. Furthermore, allowing these employees to live outside Dane County may result in additional compensation costs associated with travel time under certain conditions (e.g., inability to come into work due to weather conditions). The ordinance change and the potential fiscal effects are the result of prohibitions on local government employee residency requirements that were adopted as part of 2013 Wisconsin Act 20.
Title
CHARTER Creating Section 3.30(3) of the Madison General Ordinances to maintain residency requirements for specified City employees.
Body
DRAFTER'S ANALYSIS: The recently adopted State Budget Bill, 2013 Wisconsin Act 20, adopted new Wis. Stat. § 66.0502. The new law removes the authority of municipalities to establish residency requirements for municipal employees. The Legislature included a finding that the residency of local government employees was a matter of statewide concern.
Under Article XI, sec. 3(1) of the Wisconsin Constitution:
Cities and villages organized pursuant to state law may determine their local affairs and government, subject only to this constitution and to such enactments of the legislature of statewide concern as with uniformity shall affect every city or every village. The method of such determination shall be prescribed by the legislature.
The Wisconsin courts have held that the Legislature’s determination of what is a matter of statewide or local concern is entitled to weight, but is not binding on a court. Our analysis suggests that there is almost nothing of statewide concern about the residency of local government employees and that, rather, the residency of local government employees i...
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