It wasn't a particularly active year for business interests in the Legislature

For business interests, the 2007-08 session of the Wisconsin Legislature will likely be remembered more for what didn't get done.

Lawmakers adjourned their session in mid-March with only a handful of notable bills affecting businesses signed into law. There's a much longer list of proposals business interests opposed that didn't:

• A universal health-care plan
• Combined reporting for business taxes
• An increase in the minimum wage, among others.

Perhaps the most significant bill business groups supported that became law created statewide cable franchises, making it easier for companies like AT&T to provide cable service in Wisconsin.

Other victories for business groups were largely limited to a series of tax cuts approved in the state budget, including an increase in the credit for angel investors, or parochial interests pushed by individual groups.

Lobbying success

The Wisconsin Bankers Association successfully lobbied for several bills this session, including one placing new restrictions on trigger leads, when credit bureaus run checks on consumers and then sell information to brokers

Jeremey Shepherd, the organization's director of legislative affairs, said the Bankers also focused on knocking down attempts to implement combined reporting.

"This session we went on offense with a few industry-important bills, but unfortunately we had to play a lot of defense, too," Shepherd said.

The Assembly, controlled by Republicans, and the Senate, run by Democrats, staked out very different agendas for the session with little room for agreement.

By comparison, after Republicans seized control of both houses following the 2002 elections, they worked closely with Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle's administration to implement the single sales factor in calculating business taxes. They also hashed out an overhaul of the state's permitting process that also made it easier to develop along Wisconsin waterways, the so-called Job Creation Act.

In that 2003-04 session, Doyle signed 1,567 bills into law with both houses under one party. Another 489 bills were signed in the 2005-06 session with one-party control.

But 225 bills became law this session. During the 2001-02 session, the last time there was split control of the Legislature, just 106 bills were signed into law.

'Do no harm'

Steve Baas, a former legislative aide and now director of government affairs for the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, said that's not necessarily a bad thing for businesses, who often would prefer government to follow the "Hippocratic Oath and first do no harm."

Baas said beating back attempts to implement a universal health care plan administered by the state or increasing corporate taxes as Senate Democrats proposed were significant.

The two-year state budget is the most dominant piece of legislation in any session, but it takes on even more significance with split control of the Legislature because it's the one bill lawmakers generally feel they have to get done.

Knocked out of budget

In assessing the budget, many business groups — again — look at what was knocked out of the budget as much as what was left in. Democrats in the state Senate were unsuccessful in their attempts to put a universal health care plan into the state budget. While some businesses supported the approach, many decried it as the largest proposed tax hike in state history.

The governor urged lawmakers to embrace his call for an assessment on oil company revenues, saying they needed to pay their fair share amid record profits. It, too, was dropped, as was Doyle's proposed increase in the real estate transfer fee, which was opposed by Realtors.

The final budget included a series of tax changes that business groups favored, included a deduction for health insurance premiums and an increase in the angel investment tax credit.

Business groups also took their share of losses this session.

The state tax deduction for health savings accounts that some businesses sought did not become law, while the economic stimulus package Doyle unveiled in February was not enacted.

Doyle called for a boost in the state's minimum wage of $6.50 an hour and a series of business tax cuts. That includes a new tax credit for research and development expenses as well as a capital gains proposal to allow investors to avoid the tax on up to $10 million if they plow the capital gains back into a state business.

More disagreement

But the two houses didn't come to an agreement on the major provisions of the package. The Senate approved a boost in the minimum wage, legislation ignored by the Assembly, which approved the capital gains cut and other provisions Doyle sought only to see the Senate pass it over.

Doyle said much more could have been done for business in the session, stressing his package represents an opportunity for Wisconsin to be a center for research and development. Some Senate Democrats countered that in the midst of a sluggish economy, the state should focus its help on workers, not providing more benefits to businesses.

Doyle said many of his proposals that lawmakers didn't take up this time around will resurface next year, and he has already announced plans to include a new health insurance program for small businesses in the budget he'll introduce in early 2009.

JR Ross is the editor at WisPolitics.com.