STAND. COM. REP. NO.1381

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: H.B. No. 290

H.D. 2

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 290, H.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO UNEMPLOYMENT,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate general funds to the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations to create a program to provide temporary unemployment benefits to certain workers.

Specifically, this measure extends unemployment insurance benefits to unemployed workers who have either exhausted their rights to receive regular unemployment benefits or had their applicable benefit year expire. This measure further restricts eligibility for benefits to persons who filed their initial claims on or after September 11, 2001, and are not eligible to receive unemployment benefits under federal law or the laws of any other state.

Additionally, this measure requires that funds for the additional benefits be withdrawn from the unemployment compensation trust fund and, if necessary, from the general fund. Also, this measure terminates the additional benefits once the unemployment insurance fund reaches the threshold upon which the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations would be required to increase the unemployment taxes paid by employers.

Your Committee finds that this measure is a necessary buffer measure in the event that the federal Temporary Extended Unemployment Compensation program is not extended after May 31, 2003.

Your Committee also finds that as a result of September 11, 2001, there have been unprecedented numbers of individuals experiencing layoffs, work furloughs, and decreased work hours. Your Committee finds that the Legislature's efforts in previous sessions to provide relief through a temporary program to provide additional unemployment compensation has been greatly appreciated by the business community.

Your Committee has amended this measure by specifying a $1 appropriation and by changing the effective date from July 1, 2003 to July 1, 2053, for the purposes of continued discussion on the matter.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 290, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 290, H.D. 2, S.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

____________________________

BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair