By State House News Service
A little over a month after Gov. Charlie Baker signed a law shoring up the unemployment system and reducing the premium increases facing employers to fund jobless benefits, lawmakers and administration officials are once again looking for a way to provide businesses relief from spiking costs.
The law Baker signed on April 1 authorized $7 billion in borrowing to stabilize the state s unemployment insurance trust fund, strained by a flood of joblessness during the COVID-19 pandemic, and limited the average rate hike to 18.5 percent instead of the nearly 60 percent increase employers would otherwise have to pay.
Some businesses soon found they were nonetheless facing dramatic increases in their unemployment tax payments, as one component of their UI costs, known as the solvency assessments, jumped from a rate of 0.58 percent in 2020 to 9.23 percent in 2021, surprising many.
Holdup on Massachusetts unemployment insurance relief quest appears to be federal guidance
Updated May 06, 2021;
By Katie Lannan | State House News Service
A little over a month after Gov. Charlie Baker signed a law shoring up the unemployment system and reducing the premium increases facing employers to fund jobless benefits, lawmakers and administration officials are once again looking for a way to provide businesses relief from spiking costs.
The law Baker signed on April 1 authorized $7 billion in borrowing to stabilize the state’s unemployment insurance trust fund, strained by a flood of joblessness during the COVID-19 pandemic, and limited the average rate hike to 18.5 percent instead of the nearly 60 percent increase employers would otherwise have to pay.
A Truro Democrat on Friday pushed members of a new commission studying qualified immunity to reach out and listen to a diverse set of voices, saying the.
Rep. Michael Day, who leads the commission alongside Sen. Jamie Eldridge, said members can look to include a diverse range of voices when selecting who will offer presentations to the commission. I do want to underscore that we re going to be very deliberate and conscious and making sure that every voice is heard by the commission, Day said. I think some of that can come out in our presentations that we choose to request. But certainly, the intent here is to be fully transparent and welcoming to the public for their feedback and thoughts.
By any measure, qualified immunity is a difficult and complex topic to understand unless years are spent studying the subject. To that extent, commissioners decided to invite a legal scholar or expert to their next meeting at the end of May to present on the origins of the doctrine and discuss how it evolved over the years.
Legislative discord over Holyoke Soldiers’ Home bond bill pits House leadership against Senate
Updated Apr 30, 2021;
Posted Apr 30, 2021 Delaying this project, for which there is a demonstrated need, is unacceptable,” state Rep. Joseph Wagner said after the Senate introduced amendments to a bond bill for a new Holyoke Soldiers Home that he says will slow its passage. (Greg Saulmon / The Republican file photo)GREG SAULMON / THE REPUBLICAN
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BOSTON A day after the Senate unanimously passed a $600 million bond bill for a new Holyoke Soldiers’ Home and expanded veterans’ services statewide, a Chicopee lawmaker rapped the Senate for making the bill so top-heavy it may not pass.