Mary Spicuzza

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Republicans have repeatedly downplayed the significance of the lame-duck legislation signed into law on Friday by Gov. Scott Walker, with one GOP legislative leader calling the measures "kind of inside baseball."

But the new laws will affect Wisconsin residents in a myriad of specific ways.

The legislation will limit voter turnout, change where and how road repairs are funded and take away power from Gov.-elect Tony Evers and the incoming Democratic attorney general as Walker prepares to leave office next month.

These are some of the more signficiant items in the law-duck laws:

Your health care could be impacted

The proposal takes power away from Evers and incoming Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul, limiting their ability to immediately withdraw Wisconsin from a federal lawsuit to overturn the Affordable Care Act. That could affect health care coverage for people with preexisting conditions or those young people (26 and under) on their parents' health insurance.

RELATED:GOP seeks to limit Wisconsin early voting, strip powers from Tony Evers and Josh Kaul in lame-duck session

RELATED:Incoming attorney general slams GOP plan to curb his powers, says it subverts democracy

Your ability to vote early might be limited

Early voting, or absentee voting, will now be available for only two weeks before an election, even though more people voted early in this year's general election than ever before.

These new limits to early voting will likely lead to lawsuits, similar to one previously won by One Wisconsin. "We will take whatever action necessary to defend what the judge decided in court," said Scot Ross, the group's executive director.

U.S. District Judge James Peterson has already ruled communities can provide more extensive early voting. Under Peterson's order, local officials set their own schedules for early voting. In Madison, that meant six weeks of early voting for last month's election.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett slammed the GOP plan.

"They want people to believe it's inside baseball, but this goes to the heart of our democracy," Barrett said.

RELATED:Lawsuit looms over proposed limit to early voting in Wisconsin

How and where crime is fought

Lawmakers are now permitted to replace the attorney general with private attorneys of their choosing for key cases.

They can also require lawmakers to sign off on court settlements; give lawmakers instead of the attorney general control of how to spend court settlements; and eliminate the solicitor general’s office that oversees high-profile litigation.

Blocking Kaul from deciding how settlement money is spent could mean less money for anti-crime initiatives, victim's funds and other criminal justice work.

The condition of the roads you drive

Another provision in the lame-duck laws mandates the state channel much of the federal road money it gets into a small number of projects. That means more projects will be funded with state money only and will not have to comply with federal environmental regulations and standards that require construction crews to make union-level wages.

But the arrangement may mean the state will miss out on qualifying for some federal aid that it would otherwise qualify for, according to a report by the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

Another measure allows local governments to avoid having to follow state standards for some road projects, even when they use state funds.

How your tax dollars are spent on job creation

Republicans will now have more say over the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., the state's job creation agency. It has faced criticism in recent years over its oversight of taxpayer money, and Evers has pledged to dissolve it and re-establish the former state Commerce Department to do that work.

The legislation will initially gives lawmakers control of the WEDC board. But in September, Evers will regain the ability to appoint the agency's director, and the board will be downsized so that it will be evenly split between Republicans and Democrats.

In addition, WEDC will rely on a business owner's word and outside audits of a portion of businesses receiving taxpayer funds to confirm jobs are being created under the state's tax credit programs, rather than independently verifying all promised jobs.

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