2002 House Bill 5763 ↩

House Roll Call 286: Passed

To increase the state maximum weekly unemployment insurance benefit from $300 to $375. The bill would consider severance pay in determining when a claimant would first be eligible for benefits, and requires all beneficiaries to accept alternative work that pays at least 70% of the previous compensation, rather than the current system of a sliding scale of 80-percent dropping to 70-percent depending on how many weeks of benefits have been collected. Finally, the bill would lower by 80-percent the non-chargeable benefit tax on employers who have had no benefit claims for five or more years. This is a tax for the portion of unemployment insurance benefits and costs which are not attributable to a particular employer (the “socialized costs”).