- reduce the maximum weekly benefits from $506 to $350
- reduce the maximum weeks of benefits from 26 to a sliding scale of between 12 and 20 weeks
- increase state unemployment taxes for some employers and expands the groups of employers required to pay those taxes. The maximum state unemployment tax rate would rise from 5.7 percent to 5.76 percent on employee wages up to $20,900. In addition, employers who currently are exempt from paying state unemployment taxes because they don’t have a history of layoffs would have to pay a minimum rate of six-hundredths of a percent on wages up to $20,900
- Nonprofits and local governments, which currently don’t pay state unemployment taxes but do have to reimburse the state 100 percent for the benefits received by their laid-off workers, also would have to contribute to the state unemployment trust fund.
If the measures in the bill are adopted, the committee’s staff estimates the state would accelerate repayment of the debt – erasing it by 2015, instead of in 2018 if the state does nothing. That acceleration would eliminate three years of paying higher FUTA taxes.
There is a lot of opposition to these proposals and things could change dramatically by the time the General Assembly moves into session. Keep listening and I'll try to keep you abreast of any other proposals that are being floated.
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