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Senate committee backs unemployment tax-rate adjustment, hears plan for DMV data match
Summary
The Senate Finance and Claims Committee heard House Bill 210 to add a lower unemployment insurance tax-rate class and permit a DMV–DOJ pass/fail data match to speed identity verification; the Department of Labor said the trust fund balance and fraud concerns justify the change.
Majority Leader Steve Fitzpatrick opened House Bill 210 to the Senate Finance and Claims Committee, saying the bill would add a lower tax-rate class to Montana’s unemployment insurance schedule to return excess trust-fund balances to employers. Fitzpatrick asked the committee to consider the bill’s projected reductions in employer tax collections cited in the fiscal note.
Sarah Swanson, commissioner of the Department of Labor and Industry, told the committee Montana’s unemployment trust fund had an ending balance of $643,000,420 as of January and that actuarial review supported a modest rate-path reduction. Swanson said the change would…
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