Links

The State of Wisconsin: This is the main web portal for the State of Wisconsin. Whether you’re looking for information about the Governor’s “Grow Wisconsin” economic development blueprint or information about liquor licensing laws, you will find it somewhere on the state’s portal.

WisconsinPartnership.wi.gov. Governor Jim Doyle has directed state agencies to find ways to help local governments reduce costs. One source of information about this is the new local government assistance website. This site is a work in progress, but will eventually feature a wealth of information about state government services, data and other resources that may be of benefit to towns. It currently features links to procurement information, such as low-cost cellular phone contracts.

Wisconsin Legislature: The State Legislature's website offers a wealth of insights. By linking to various legislative support agencies you can tap into virtual libraries of information about current policy issues, audits of the performance of state programs, reports on state finances, economic forecasts and much more. Just as importantly, it offers fast access to information about the status of bills, the text and history of all proposed legislation, notes about major amendments and fiscal estimates. For example, a bill’s history page includes the bill's "relating clause," which offers a very brief overview of the bill's intent and a day-by-day description of every legislative action taken affecting the bill, starting with the date of introduction. The history also lists: the introduction of all amendments (with links to the text of each); a record of which committee(s) the bill has been referred to; the date of public hearings; and any executive action taken by committee(s) on the bill, including vote totals. When bills are scheduled for floor action, you can follow along on-line by using the Legislature’s InSession service -- one for the Senate and another for the Assembly. The Senate offers only audio coverage while the Assembly offers live video as well. The InSession pages also list the day's calendar, links to bills before the house and roll call votes as they occur. Access to legislators’ home pages, bills, bill histories, InSession, legislative staff agencies and other information can be found on the main Legislative web site. An e-mail notification service is also available to keep you automatically posted about any bill(s) of interest to you. The entire Wisconsin Statutes and the 1,000+ page Blue Book (a comprehensive almanac of information about state and local governments in Wisconsin) can both be found here. You can also use the state's website to keep track of legislation (the text of every bill and the full legislative history). But to read everything the state has to offer on your computer, you will have to add a software package called Adobe Acrobat, which is also available for free on the Internet. We highly recommend that you do this to take full advantage of the resources available on this and other sites.

Badgerlink: This little-know, but extremely useful, site is offered by the state Department of Public Instruction. DPI contracts with two vendors (EBSCO and ProQuest) to provide access to articles from thousands of newspaper and periodical titles. Through EBSCO, users can search over 6,000 magazine and journal titles, over half of which are available in full-text. ProQuest provides access to a dozen Wisconsin newspapers. A search engine allows you to find and read the full text of articles about many specific topics and bills. BadgerLink also provides a directory of links to library, education, government and general reference sites that may be of interest to town officials.

UW Extension Local Government Center: This site offers information about local government workshops; best practices, factsheets (on topics ranging from the Annual Meeting to the state's Open Meetings Law); links to other Internet resources; and much more.

State Division of Intergovernmental Relations: The Division of Intergovernmental relations offers information about such topics as: comprehensive planning; demographics; grants; plat review; municipal boundary review (annexations, incorporations, consolidations and cooperative boundary agreements); the Length of Service Award program; and land information.

Federal Government: This site is a one stop shopping point for federal government information on the Web. Like everything else about the Federal Government, their Web presence is both vast and bewildering. This site organizes the dozens of federal (and related organization) offerings available. If you prefer, you can also take your cyber search directly to the White House. Not surprisingly, this is an exceptional elegant and interesting site. But it's not necessarily the easiest way to find answers to questions about federal programs of interest to town leaders.

National Association of Towns & Townships: Key federal issues tracked by NATaT include labor laws, assistance for first-responders, water, takings and transportation. It advocates flexible approaches to federal policies to ensure that small communities can meet federal requirements. It also looks for opportunities to remind federal policy-makers that as many Americans live in rural communities as live in central cities. The site offers some useful links and information about national issues of interest to town leaders. It is a good place to look for information about rural development and "Main Street" revitalization issues.

Web Sites Offered by Wisconsin Towns: Click here to see a list of Wisconsin towns that have their own Web Site.

Adobe Acrobat Download: Don't worry, it's not as scary as it sounds. The computer will do all the work -- all you have to do is tell your computer you want it, answer a few questions and follow the prompts. Some of the links in other parts of the WTA Web Site link directly to Adobe files (also known as PDF files), so downloading it now will give you seamless access to many other useful items

Getting Started on the Internet: This site offers a simple and clear explanation of what the Internet is and how it works. It explains how browsers, search engines and other tools can be used to get the most from this vast and fascinating resource. Click here to find a list of other sites that explain what the Internet is all about (warning: some of them were written by and for computer tekkies).