by State Rep. J. Eggleston
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When someone is laid off or fired from a job, it is possible they may be able to collect unemployment money from the government. The government collects that money from Missouri businesses, primarily the former employers of those who are now unemployed. So essentially, businesses have to pay people who no longer do any work for them.
The unemployed worker needs to be actively seeking a new job (which is hard to disprove), and they may collect unemployment benefits for up to 20 weeks.
Recently, proposed legislation debated on the House floor (HB288) would tie the amount of weeks someone can collect unemployment to the unemployment rate.
When the unemployment rate is high (9% or more), the duration of benefits would remain at 20 weeks. When the unemployment rate is low (6% or less), the duration would be 13 weeks. In between 6% and 9% would be a duration between 13 and 20 weeks. Our unemployment rate is currently between 4% and 5%.
HB288 would also change how employers fund the pot to make it more solvent in times of high unemployment. In the last several economic downturns, the fund ran broke, forcing the state government to borrow money to cover the benefits. This required employers to pay even more to cover the interest payments on the loan.
If all of this sounds familiar, you may remember we passed this exact same legislation two years ago. It was passed in the House and Senate, Gov. Nixon vetoed it, his veto was overridden in both chambers, and it became law. However, the House override happened in April in regular session, whereas the Senate override happened in September in veto session.
Someone sued, and the Missouri Supreme Court ruled the two overrides had to happen in the same session. Since they did not, the law was thrown out, and now we are starting all over again. This is frustrating, but part of the process of getting laws right.
HB288 now moves over to the Senate for their approval.
Several other bills were recently debated on the House floor. Among them were HB115 about expanding alcohol in airports, HB138 on virtual education in our public schools, HB151 about Real ID driver’s licenses, and HB662 relating to herbicide regulations.