Assembly approves bill making apprenticeship costs deductible (UPDATE)

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The Assembly approved a proposal on Thursday allowing payments for apprenticeship training to be deducted from income taxes.

Proponents of AB 734, which would allow anyone who pays tuition for an apprenticeship program to deduct that money from their income taxes, said hours before the Assembly was scheduled to meet that they were getting behind an amendment meant to drum up bipartisan support for the proposal. The amendment, also adopted on Thursday, is meant to make it clear that the proposed tax deduction would apply to tuition expenses for both union and non-union apprenticeship programs.

John Schulze, director of legal and government affairs of Associated Builders and Contractors of Wisconsin, a group that mostly represents non-union companies, said the proposed tax deductions would ensure apprentices can enjoy the same benefits as anyone attending a four-year college.

“Under current law, whoever is paying for tuition … can deduct the cost of the tuition for technical colleges and universities, but they cannot for apprenticeship tuition,” Schulze said.

He said the discrepancy was driven home for him on a recent phone call he had with a mother who was wondering why certain expenses were deductible when others weren’t. The money she was paying for her son to attend cosmetology school could be deducted, she said. So why not money spent on her daughter’s apprenticeship training to become a laborer?

“I said, ‘I guess I didn’t know that,’ ” Schulze recalled.

Rep. Jill Billings, a Democrat from La Crosse and a co-author of the amendment, said the amended version of the bill would ensure no one is excluded.

“Most people in apprenticeship training in our state are going through union programs,” Billings said in a statement. “This amendment allows union apprenticeship programs and employers to take advantage of this benefit, along with private employers and individuals. That’s why I decided to sign on to this amendment and support the bill.”

The amendment was enough to induce the biggest construction union in the state to change its position on AB 734. Local 139 of the International Union of Operating Engineers had started out as an opponent of the proposal but recently changed its stance to supportive.

In doing so, Local 139 joined a long list of construction groups – both union and non-union – that have got behind the legislation. They include not only the ABC of Wisconsin but also the Wisconsin Pipe Trades Association and the Mechanical Contractors Association of Wisconsin.

With the Assembly’s approval of AB 734 on Thursday, the bill will next go to the Senate and then, if passed there, the governor’s office to be signed into law.

AB 734 is far from being the only bill lawmakers are taking up to clear away obstacles to careers in construction amid a labor shortage that has long held the industry in its grips.

Another bill, AB 745, would let high school seniors take part in apprenticeships as long as they could still be expected to graduate within a year and as long as the training would not interfere with their regular studies. That legislation was passed unanimously by members of the Committee on Workforce Development last month, and is waiting to be scheduled for a floor vote by the Assembly.

Another proposal, AB 124, has also been approved at the committee level and is awaiting consideration by the full Assembly. This so-called second-start bill would have the Department of Workforce Development assemble informational packets laying out training and career opportunities for people who leave college without obtaining a degree.

But time might be running out for the two proposals. Leaders in the state Assembly have said they plan to hold their final meeting of the current legislative session sometime in March. Follow @alexzank