Senate Bill 160, which the House’s Republican majority passed 97-68 along party lines, replaces a state Department of Labor administrative fee that expired at the end of last year using money that otherwise would go into Georgia’s Unemployment Insurance (UI) Trust Fund.
”UI Trust Fund contributions should not be reduced to compensate for other funding allocations, as this risks the resiliency of a trust fund which already ranks below a majority of states in terms of solvency,” Ray Khalfani, senior worker justice policy analyst for the progressive Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, said in a statement March 27 after the House passed the bill. “The state has more than enough resources on hand to both replenish the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund and ensure that the Department of Labor can operate efficiently and at full capacity.”
