UI rate relief stalls out, kicked into new session
Photo | Grant Welker
Downtown Worcester
Dozens of lawmakers gave their support Tuesday to a bill that would soften the blow of increased unemployment taxes about to hit businesses, but the Legislature must now start the process over after the measure failed to surface for votes in either branch amidst a blitz of legislating.
Baker's bill (H 5206) was designed to relieve Massachusetts businesses from a collective $1.3 billion in rate hikes over the next two years. It cleared two legislative panels without any opposition, but ended the session while pending before the House Ways and Means Committee as lawmakers instead focused on an array of other bills while meeting in overnight sessions that ran more than 16 hours.
Now that a new session has started, either Baker or a lawmaker will need to refile the legislation.
The issue remains a central one for employers and may emerge as one of the first topics that lawmakers take up in the new year. Because of the unprecedented demand for joblessness aid during the pandemic, the state's unemployment insurance trust fund faces a multibillion-dollar deficit and the taxes employers pay into the system are set to rise nearly 60 percent.
Baker conceded when he filed the original proposal, which would limit the hikes to an average of about 17 percent, that it could wait until February or March for passage since bills will not be due until the end of the first quarter.
Businesses have argued they need resolution as soon as possible so they can plan costs for the year and that absorbing the full tax increases -- alongside a long-scheduled minimum wage increase and new paid family and medical leave availability -- will stunt economic recovery.
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