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Opinion

By Brooke Thomson

Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM) has worked tirelessly with elected officials on both the state and federal levels to moderate a potentially disastrous 60% increase in unemployment insurance rates next year and to keep the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund on sound financial footing.

Last month, Gov. Charlie Baker took a major step toward addressing that issue by filing timely legislation to ensure a two-year schedule freeze and provide the ability to bond the remaining trust-fund deficit and allow it to be rebuilt over time.

Meanwhile, AIM continues to support efforts by the Massachusetts Congressional delegation to persuade Congress to provide additional resources for the state’s Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund. The $900 billion economic stimulus bill recently approved in the U.S. Congress does not provide money for state UI systems, though it does revive the Paycheck Protection Program with $284 billion to cover a second round of PPP grants to especially hard-hit businesses.

Massachusetts businesses now need elected officials to stabilize the state’s unemployment-insurance system by freezing the statutory rate and allowing Massachusetts to authorize bonding.

A day before Baker filed his rate-freeze bill, AIM provided a statement to the entire Massachusetts Legislature calling for a freeze on employer UI tax-rate schedules to shield Massachusetts employers from the upcoming rate spike, which is tied by statute to the overall condition of state UI Trust Fund.

Given the unforeseen economic shutdowns brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic beginning in March, the Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance projects that the fund, primarily financed by direct and reimbursing employer contributions, will be in the red by $5 billion at the end of 2022 and remain insolvent by about $3 billion as far out as 2024.

These initial numbers, left unchecked, would trigger an increase from the current 2020 employer tax rate of Schedule E, or $539 per employee, to Schedule G, about $866 per employee, reflecting an almost 60% increase.

Baker’s bill would freeze the employer tax rate at Schedule E for the next two years, slowing annual employer contribution growth to $635 in 2021 and $665 in 2022.

AIM thanks Gov. Baker for filing this legislation, and we appreciate the speedy action that the House and Senate have taken throughout this pandemic with legislation to stabilize the unemployment-insurance system for employers and employees.

We urge the House and Senate to take urgent action on this proposed legislation to freeze rates and fund the system through bonding, which will ensure that all claims are paid to individuals, that the trust fund is stabilized with a low-interest loan, and the Commonwealth is able to avoid a statutorily triggered unemployment-insurance tax-rate hike in first months of 2021.

 

Brooke Thomson is executive vice president for Government Affairs at Associated Industries of Massachusetts.