Deal Nearer For Unemployment Fund Rescue

Advertisement

(STATEHOUSE) - Negotiators appear close to a deal on a $700 million per year cash injection for the bankrupt unemployment trust fund. As Democrats promised, the plan does not cut benefits.

It does promise $300 million a year in savings by tightening up eligibility.

Senate Republicans had previously claimed they could save $220 million through measures such as cutting benefits for workers fired for misconduct, or for workers still drawing vacation or severance pay at the same time they go on the rolls.

"We all agree we do not want payments going to people if they are not supposed to get those benefits," says House Labor Chairman David Niezgodski (D-South Bend).

Niezgodski and Senate Labor Chairman Dennis Kruse (R-Auburn) are declining to specify where the savings come from until all four negotiators have signed the deal. Niezgodski says Democrats did veto a GOP proposal to save $129 million by making most seasonal workers ineligible for benefits.

He says the parties disagree over whether that's what the fund was intended for, and notes it's no longer so certain that any worker temporarily laid off will be able to reclaim that job.

Print this story