Unemployment compensation overhaul halted
Posted December 05, 2016 in Press Releases
Policy Matters Ohio pushed for the bill to be delayed
Policy Matters Ohio is pleased that House Bill 620, the bill that would overhaul Ohio’s unemployment compensation system mostly by cutting benefits for jobless workers, is not moving ahead. Rep. Louis W Blessing III, chairman of the House Committee on Government Accountability and Oversight, announced before the committee was to take up the bill today that it was being taken off the agenda and would not return this session. The removal from the committee’s schedule suggests the measure is not likely to advance in anything like its current form, though a hearing on a companion measure, Senate Bill 374, was still scheduled in the Senate Ways & Means Committee Tuesday morning.
According to an analysis by the Legislative Service Commission, 83 percent of HB 620’s costs would have been borne by unemployed workers, including a reduction in the number of weeks of benefits available. “We hope all of the affected parties, including representatives of both workers and employers, can discuss this important issue next year and come to an agreement on how to make the fund solvent,” said Research Director Zach Schiller. Policy Matters Ohio previously proposed its own plan to make the trust fund solvent and has said action should be delayed unless there were major changes in the bill.
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Policy Matters Ohio is a nonprofit, nonpartisan state policy research institute with offices in Cleveland and Columbus.