2003 House Bill 4945 ↩

House Roll Call 442: Passed

To add a new “trigger” for the payment of extended unemployment insurance benefits. The bill is designed to garner an additional $180 million in federal money to provide an additional 13 weeks of unemployment insurance benefits to unemployed workers who have reached the end of their 26 weeks of benefits. The state would be required to pay out $26 million from its own Unemployment Trust Fund, which consists of contributions made by Michigan employers. The new trigger would be when, over the preceding 13 weeks, the state unemployment rate is more than 6.5 percent, and is also 10 percent higher than the same period in either of the preceding two years. Under current law, extended benefits can be triggered by two other alternative formulas. The bill could potentially have an impact on the mandatory unemployment insurance premiums paid by employers.