Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Unemployment Insurance topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Committee debates changes to unemployment calculations and proposal to expand UI for school support staff
Summary
Senators examined a draft that would exclude certain earnings from weekly unemployment benefit calculations and a companion provision to extend or clarify unemployment insurance coverage for school support staff. Members asked the Joint Fiscal Office for separate cost estimates and scheduled further testimony.
Committee members reviewed a bill with two distinct unemployment-related provisions: (1) a change to disregarded earnings that would exclude particular earnings from the gross-wages calculation for weekly unemployment benefits and (2) an expansion or clarification of unemployment insurance (UI) coverage for school support staff.
A staff presenter explained the first change as a modification to the "disregarded earnings" rule: under current practice some reported gross wages are partially disregarded when computing UI. "Right now, you know, they disregard 50% of your reported gross wages earned, and so this would exclude those earnings from that calculation," the presenter said, describing a change that would increase weekly UI benefits for people who earn some income (for example as an independent contractor) while collecting UI.
Committee members noted the provision has potentially large fiscal implications and asked the Joint Fiscal Office (JFO) to provide estimates. One member recalled prior testimony that produced a $5 million to $41 million estimate; the committee clarified that that range applied to the second part of the bill (expanding or clarifying UI for school support staff), not to the disregarded-earnings change, and asked JFO to provide separate cost estimates for each provision.
Members discussed policy trade-offs, including whether the change would treat certain seasonal or independent-contractor earnings differently from other seasonal industries. Several members said the committee's original intent when sponsoring the bill was to address school support staff coverage; they expressed concern that the broader disregarded-earnings language turns into a wider UI policy change that would merit separate study. The committee asked the labor commissioner and JFO to testify and to identify what data the Department of Labor already collects that could inform cost estimates.
No formal action was taken; members agreed to seek separate fiscal estimates from JFO for (a) the disregarded-earnings change and (b) the school-support-staff coverage, and to continue the discussion when the commissioner appears on Thursday.
