Searching the Budget Drafting Files

 

The Wisconsin Biennial Budget is primarily a fiscal document, but also usually contains several policy items.  Because of the nature of budget drafting, researchers may be faced with a significant amount of work to find the information they are seeking.  Modern-day budgets records have been systematically organized and indexed to help individuals through the process of finding the draft they are seeking.  For more information on researching budget bills, please see pages 21-25 of the LRB publication “Researching Legislative History in Wisconsin”.  The following guide is designed help you to find the correct component draft within the budget bill file.

 

Finding the Budget Folder

 

The budget drafts in this database are separated out from all other legislation.  Once you click on the correct session folder, the budget is denoted in the title of the file, followed by its act number and original bill number in parentheses:

 

 

 

 Information within the Budget Folder

 

Budget bills contain hundreds of individual drafts.  Each of these drafts is given an LRB number to distinguish it from other budget components.

 

There are different steps to follow for searching the budget drafting records, depending on what you are looking for:

A)    A statute section passed in the budget bill, or

B)     A proposal that was removed from the budget before passage

 

A) If statute section passed with the Budget

 

First find the LRB Number by opening the “Enrolled Proposal with LRB Numbers” link within the Act Folder:

 

/LRB Drafting Files / 2005-06 (complete drafting file scans) / 2005 Budget (Act 25) (AB 100) / (#001) 05Act 025 /

 

05Act 025enrolling ... 1) partial veto message

05Act 025enrolling ... 2) bill history

05Act 025enrolling ... 3) enrolling form

05Act 025enrolling ... 4) drafting file

05-3241/en Enrolled Proposal

05-3241/en_wLRBnumbers Enrolled Proposal

05Act 025 Final Act

05Act 025-veto Vetoed Copy

 

Then search the Enrolled Proposal with LRB Numbers for the bill section or statutory section of interest and locate the LRB number. 

 

 

In the above example, Section 562.058 Wisconsin Statutes was created in Section 2422y of the Budget and originally had the LRB Number “b0408” (Note: LRB Numbers may or may not start with the letter “b”).

 

If you know where the draft came in to the budget process, then proceed to that folder and look up the draft using the LRB Number.

 

If you do NOT know where it came into the budget process, then you can use the online search functions:

 

To Search for the draft using the LRB Number

 

1)      Go to the 1^st Budget Folder for the given session

 

 

 

 

2)      Type LRB Number into the search bar and choose “Search Folder” or hit Return.

 

 
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