— This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: the Podcast” features a special segment with Tom Still and Buckley Brinkman discussing Janesville’s referendum results, the post-midterm policy landscape and more.
Still is the past president of the Wisconsin Technology Council, an advisor to Competitive Wisconsin and author of the opinion column, “Inside Wisconsin.” Brinkman is the former executive director and CEO of the Wisconsin Center for Manufacturing & Productivity, and a frequent opinion contributor to WisBusiness.com.
Voters in Janesville last week approved a referendum granting them more control over development projects at the former GM site, applying to anything exceeding $450 million. After it passed with about 62% approval, Still says he’s concerned the new restriction “hamstrings them” when it comes to new development.
“They may not be able to get in the kind of big manufacturing or other site that they would like — or should like,” Still said.
Brinkman argues at least some of the local sentiment was “the opacity around the whole deal,” referencing the proposed Veridion data center project that ultimately fell through after residents voiced concerns.
“I think the people who were working on the project really made a misstep when they kept a lot of this hidden until the whole project was ready to go,” he said. “But I share Tom’s concern in that, when you start putting restrictions on … a difficult site to develop, you’re really hamstringing your community. Because they’ll just go somewhere else.”
The conversation goes in-depth on public sentiment around data centers and AI, as well as how coming policy discussions will be shaped by these attitudes under the new Dem control of state government in Wisconsin next year.
Brinkman and Still weigh in on how lawmakers might use the state’s projected $3 billion budget surplus, from supporting manufacturing and other key state industries to putting state support behind emerging fields such as nuclear fusion.
“I think there’s more to be done there,” Still said. “There’s the old joke about commercial fusion’s 20 years away and will always be 20 years away. Well I don’t think that’s true anymore, and with the right investments that can be sped along.”
Listen to the podcast here and see the full list of WisBusiness podcasts.
— The Study Committee on the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare is reviewing legislative recommendations to protect consumer health data, add chatbot safety features, regulate the use of AI in health insurance and create an office of AI policy.
While committee members agreed on bills to protect consumer data and safety features for AI chatbots, they debated what to regulate regarding the use of AI in denying insurance claims and how best to create a potential state office.
The committee, chaired by Sen. Rachael Cabral-Guevara, R-Fox Crossing, has looked to ongoing efforts in Washington and Utah on legislation and other state regulatory measures.
The committee is considering a draft of a bill that would protect consumer health data that is not covered under HIPAA or other federal regulations. This may include data from fitness trackers, reproductive health information, or location information that could be linked to receiving health services.
The current draft of the bill would require additional consumer authorization when a business or other group collects or sells relevant data.
Another bill draft would require a developer to be able to stop a chatbot from encouraging a user to engage in self-harm, violence or illegal activity and regulates sexually explicit conduct presented to children.
Rep. Mike Bare, D-Verona, advocated to consider expanding the proposed safety measures outside of just chatbots.
“But what this bill draft does is really limit what those safety measures apply to. So we’ve identified that one problem, but I could foresee a problem where there are many other tools or things in this AI definition that we’ve just created could also do these same things that this bill wouldn’t apply to,” Bare said.
The committee went back and forth over a measure that would bar health insurers, pharmacy benefit managers, the Department of Health Services and others from using AI to deny coverage or prior authorization requests without a meaningful human review from someone with clinical competency.
The draft of the bill would also require insurers to report rates of denials. The committee talked about its intent and what issue the bill is actually meant to address.
Frank Liao, UW Health senior director of emerging health and technologies, said as the draft stands, the main “teeth” of the bill are the reporting requirements, as insurers have told the committee most of the industry is having a level of human review for adverse determination.
The committee is also looking into recommending an office of AI policy within DSPS or another department with full-time employees that would oversee a regulatory relief program, which may work with UW-Madison or other groups and report back to the Legislature.
Cabral-Guevara pressed Bare if his party could commit to funding and leading the creation of such an office following the change in power next session. Bare said he could not speak on behalf of his caucus, but said he as an individual would support the effort.
“This does feel like a useful thing for our state and for emerging technologies, especially in healthcare, especially in education, and it is something I think this group’s work would be useful, and I would commit myself to continuing in the next couple of years. That’s not any sort of promise that anything gets done,” Bare said.
The committee is also considering recommending legislation to define AI and address liability concerns regarding autonomous AI use as opposed to AI use under the supervision of a clinician or medical provider.
— Meanwhile, state agency speakers yesterday called for strengthening personal data protections and backed establishing a regulatory body for AI in healthcare through future legislation.
Speaking before the Study Committee on the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare, a spokesperson for the state Department of Justice advocated for more expansive, “cutting-edge” consumer data privacy protections.
Laura McFarlane, director of the state DOJ’s public protection unit, told committee members the agency is in favor of “data minimization” regulations.
“So rather than allowing businesses to collect whatever personal data they desire, as long as they disclose the practice in a privacy policy, that the business could only collect and use data when it is reasonably necessary to provide the services the consumer would ask for,” she said.
Erin Kennon, a legislative liaison for the Department of Safety and Professional Services, said the agency supports establishing an advisory body to address “emerging regulatory challenges” around AI in healthcare.
“Our boards wrestle with these ideas regularly, what to do, how to do it, and so to have a body that can serve as a knowledge center, that would be helpful to them,” she said.
Still, Kennon argued against housing the proposed Office of AI Policy within DATCP as outlined in a draft proposal, saying it lacks the close connections to the healthcare regulatory system.
Meanwhile, McFarlane also urged members to consider expanding the scope of what’s considered sensitive health data to include information about all minors, and to bar that information from being used for targeted advertising.
DOJ is also suggesting establishing a “stronger” definition for de-identified data, expanding the concept of personal and sensitive data, and more strict limits on the transfer, collection and sale of consumer data. That’s in addition to broader consumer rights about third-party data handlers, stricter standards for data processors and more.
The committee is set to have its final meeting Dec. 2 to finalize recommendations.
See more at the AI in Wisconsin page.
— Rep. Angela Stroud said a bill from last session pushing data centers to use renewable energy will be a “starting point” for Democrats as they draft new regulations for the electricity intensive facilities.
She also told reporters at the state Capitol that Democratic lawmakers “will be ready” to pass legislation bringing down utility costs and protecting ratepayers when the new Legislature convenes in January.
Stroud, D-Ashland, co-authored legislation with Sen. Jodi Habush Sinykin, D-Whitefish Bay, last session that would have required data centers to draw at least 70% of their power from renewable energy sources to qualify for an existing tax exemption and pay prevailing wage rates or union-negotiated wages to workers on a data center construction project.
The legislation, AB 722 and SB 729, also required large power users to pay into a public benefit fund supporting energy efficiency, renewable energy and low-income energy assistance. And it instructed the Public Service Commission to codify very large power customers as a separate class of ratepayers.
“We know that we have consensus on everything that’s in that bill but things have changed a bit. There are things that are going to be added to that bill, version 2.0, coming into next session, and details on that remain to be seen,” Stroud said.
Since the end of the legislative session, the PSC has approved a proposal from one investor-owned utility, We Energies, to serve data centers and other large customers as a separate class. Several other utilities have submitted their own proposals governing how they would bill data centers.
Sen. Romaine Quinn, R-Birchwood, who authored a competing data center regulation bill last session, criticized the idea of Dems’ using Stroud’s bill as a template. He also blamed Gov. Tony Evers and Democratic appointees to the PSC for utility rate increases.
“If Democrats are being honest about data centers, the bill I authored should be the starting point. That bill would have protected ratepayers and preserved our water and farmland,” Quinn said.
The bill, SB 843, which Quinn coauthored with Rep. Shannon Zimmerman, River Falls, did include restrictions on cooling water usage not present in the Stroud-Sinykin bill. It would restrict land usage by requiring wind or solar facilities principally serving a data center – but not other power sources – to be located on-site.
That bill also called for PSC to ensure that ratepayers do not bear new utility costs associated with data center development but did not specify how the commission would do so. The PSC at the time testified it lacked the regulatory authority to guarantee this.
Stroud said she expected lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to support allowing state regulators to do long-term planning for utility infrastructure rather than evaluate new power plant proposals on a case-by-case basis.
Environmental advocates and watchdog groups like the Citizens Utility Board of Wisconsin – and PSC commissioners themselves – have advocated for Wisconsin to adopt integrated resource planning, which would allow the regulatory agency to forecast the state’s energy needs and pick what kinds of infrastructure will power the state.
PSC Chair Summer Strand last week complained publicly that legislative Republicans had left the PSC “hamstrung” by failing to approve IRP.
“I think everybody supports that. Republicans support that. That’s really a boilerplate position that we should have had, we will have going forward,” Stroud said.
Other speakers advocated for cutting utilities’ guaranteed profits, imposing a 2-cent-per-kilowatt-hour surcharge on data centers’ power usage to subsidize other ratepayers’ power costs, and a pivot to clean energy.
CUB Executive Director Tom Content called for utility profits to be tied to affordability and ratepayers’ energy burden and argued Wisconsin’s investor-owned utilities were earning profits far in excess of their operational need.
CUB pushed for cuts to We Energies and sister utility Wisconsin Public Service’s return on equity when the utilities asked the PSC to raise rates this year. The PSC cut that profit margin, though not by the degree requested by CUB.
An August analysis by the National Resources Defense Council found a 1.5% reduction in utilities’ return on equity and the 2-cent-per-kilowatt-hour surcharge would save residential ratepayers an average of $383 per year by 2028.
— Rebecca Cooke says in her first 100 days in Congress she wants to renew Affordable Care Act tax credits that expired in 2025 and expand Medicare.
Cooke, who ousted U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden from his 3rd CD seat, told reporters in a press call last week she’d like to see the ACA premium tax credits extended for three years.
The Eau Claire Dem also wants to add hearing, vision and dental coverage to Medicare and increase reimbursement rates for Medicaid and Medicare.
Cooke also expressed support for a public health insurance option.
She said her district has had both a healthcare access and cost issue, with two major hospitals having closed in the past two years, adding she had met with and planned to continue engaging with rural hospital administrators.
“Healthcare has always been at the top of my platform, and we’ve seen things really get worse off for people in the 3rd. So I think working to claw back what some of these Medicaid cuts are setting in motion is a top priority,” Cooke said, referring to healthcare spending cuts in last year’s Republican-authored budget reconciliation bill.
Van Orden, who lost by 6.6 points in last week’s election, has filed paperwork to run against Cooke in 2028.
See more in the latest WisPolitics DC Wrap.
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— The developers of a proposed extra high-voltage transmission line said in a statement they will not apply to build the 190-mile power line until at least May.
Midcontinent Grid Solutions originally planned to apply with the Public Service Commission to construct the BECI line early next year, following a series of open houses held in August.
Midcontinent also said it will reschedule a second round of open houses, where the public can learn about and provide input on the project, to early 2027. Those were originally planned for this fall.
“By extending the engagement schedule and rescheduling our open houses from the fall to early next year, we’re creating more opportunities for meaningful participation before the next step in the regulatory process,” MGS President Ryan Houk said in a statement.
That would have kicked off a monthslong regulatory review process, including the opportunity for the public to offer further comment; the developer anticipated a 12-18 month review process before the power line’s final route would be approved.
State lawmakers and U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Town of Vermont, were among those asking the power line developer to delay the construction timeline for the project.
They cited widespread concern from residents and communities in the 765-kV power line’s proposed path. The BECI line and its perceived development speed has been met with broad pushback by local governments, the state farm bureau and residents of western and south central Wisconsin.
Pocan in a statement said he was “glad” to hear the project had been delayed.
“Wisconsinites have made clear they do not want this project going forward without public input. I call on MGS to continue listening to the people before making future decisions,” Pocan said.
Another group of state lawmakers and U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Prairie du Chien, asked Gov. Tony Evers to block the project and another extra-high voltage line known as the MariBell project; Evers said he does not have the authority to do so.
Some local governments and landowner coalitions have also joined Wisconsin’s investor-owned utilities and power cooperatives in seeking to intervene in MGS’s request before the PSC to become a utility – a prerequisite to building the power line – though it’s unclear if those groups have standing to weigh in on that request.
MGS spokesperson Alan Ott said the developer will use the extra time before its construction application to review the input it’s already received from residents, which he said MGS was “happy” to have received.
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FINANCIAL SERVICES
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HEALTH CARE
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MANAGEMENT
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MANUFACTURING
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