2002 House Bill 5763 ↩

Senate Roll Call 407: Passed

The second House-Senate conference committee report, which would increase the weekly maximum unemployment benefit from $300 to $362, with no “waiting week.” This final compromise version of the bill contains provisions to consider severance pay in determining when a claimant would first be eligible for benefits, require a beneficiary to accept alternative work that pays at least 70% of the previous compensation at any time (rather than a sliding scale of 80-percent dropping to 70-percent over time). It would also lower the amount of an employee's pay on which the unemployment insurance assessments of employers are based from $9,500 to $9,000, and lower the non-chargeable benefit tax on employers who have had no benefit claims in five or more years.