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Senator Taylor presents amendment to create separate BOLI expenses fund; MLAC asks for stronger guardrails
Summary
Sen. Kathleen Taylor introduced an amendment to Senate Bill 1506 to create a separate Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) expenses fund, using the workers' benefit fund's collection infrastructure while prohibiting commingling. Committee members pressed for clearer caps, transparency and statutory guardrails and caucused before carrying the item forward to the next meeting.
Sen. Kathleen Taylor, sponsor of a personal amendment to Senate Bill 1506, told the Management-Labor Advisory Committee the proposal would create a separate “BOLI expenses fund” and keep it distinct from the workers' benefit fund.
“I just want to stress how important it is to me that the money collected stays separate from the workers benefit fund,” Taylor said, and she described a work group with representatives from business, labor, both legislative chambers and the governor's office that developed the amendment.
Josh Nasby of the Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) walked members through the amendment's mechanics, saying the bill would use the same collection and distribution infrastructure as the workers' benefit fund but would expressly prohibit using WBF monies to meet obligations of the new BOLI expenses fund. Nasby said the amendment also provides the committee authority to review plans to increase the BOLI fund balance should a shortfall occur.
Members focused questions on guardrails. Several asked where the draft limits the number of positions BOLI could request and how the proposal would prevent future expansions that use the same mechanism for unrelated programs. Nasby described the proposal as built around two “tranches” of positions (the 2025 positions temporarily funded by WBF and a second group the fund would support later) and said the language could be tightened to provide a clearer cap if DCBS supported that change.
The director of the Department of Consumer and Business Services, Sean O'Dea, told the committee the agency had provided technical input and that the draft accomplishes segregation of funds and administrative feasibility, while warning that an unexpected economic downturn could reduce overall revenues and require use of statutory levers to rebalance benefits and rates.
No final action was taken. The committee paused to caucus, and several members had to leave when the one-hour meeting ran long, ending the session for lack of quorum. Senator Taylor and BOLI staff said they are open to drafting committee or personal amendments to incorporate the requested guardrails; the SB 1506 matter will be carried to the next MLAC meeting for further consideration.
