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Empfaenger : /a/www: welfare-workfare-state Antwort in : /alt/activism/d Absender : meisenscher@igc.apc.org (Michael Eisenscher) Betreff : MI House Passes Unemployment Insurance Bill Datum : Fr 07.11.97, 21:23 (erhalten: 10.11.97) Groesse : 1994 Bytes ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ## Nachricht am 10.11.97 archiviert ## Ursprung : /misc/activism/progressive
Michigan State AFL-CIO Hails Passage of UI Bill 03:13 p.m Nov 06, 1997 Eastern
LANSING, Mich. Nov. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- The Michigan State AFL-CIO today hailed the Michigan House's passage of House Bill 5303, legislation that would restore cuts in unemployment benefits made by a Republican-controlled legislature in 1995.
"This is a major step in correcting the injustice perpetrated two years ago by a callous, mean spirited, Republican-dominated state legislature," said Michigan State AFL-CIO President Frank Garrison. "Losing a job through no fault of your own is bad enough. But for a governor and state legislature to compound a jobless person's miseries by reducing unemployment benefits was despicable."
Among other things, HB 5303:
* Restores the weekly benefit rate to 70 percent of after-tax earnings. The legislature in 1995 cut that rate to the present 67 percent.
* Restores cost-of-living adjustments for jobless benefits. The current maximum unemployment benefit is frozen at $300 per week. HB 5303 would restore the COLA, making the 1997 maximum benefit $342.88 per week.
* Returns the minimum weekly earnings requirement for qualifying for unemployment benefits to 20 times the state minimum wage. The qualifier was raised to 30 times the state minimum wage in 1995.
Garrison noted that restoring the cuts in unemployment benefits will not jeopardize the fiscal stability of the unemployment insurance trust fund from which benefits are paid. "In fact, the trust fund balance is so high that it recently triggered two additional tax cuts for Michigan businesses totaling $150 million for 1998," he said. "It's time for the Michigan Senate to follow the lead of the Michigan House and do the right thing; restore unemployment benefits that should never have been cut in the first place." SOURCE Michigan State AFL-CIO
Copyright 1997, PR Newswire
Index of Welfare-Workfare-State Archives
Last Modified: January.6, 1998