Bill > S1355

Introduced Session

This bill prevents future tax increases on employee wages in support of the State's system of providing unemployment benefits by prohibiting the unemployment tax wage base from rising above the rate in effect for calendar year 2022, and allocates $100 million to the unemployment compensation fund from federal government assistance. Current law requires the Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Development to effectively increase taxes on employee wages by annually adjusting the wage base used to calculate employee unemployment taxes. The bill would halt this adjustment to the wage base. The wage base amount determined for 2022 would be used for employee unemployment taxes in calendar year 2023 and subsequent calendar years, unless the calculation would result in a lower wage base, in which case the lower wage base would be used. Employee wage taxes are regressive. It is the sponsor's view that administratively increasing the tax every year is unfair to low and middle class employees. In lieu of additional employee payroll tax increases to support the unemployment compensation fund, the bill appropriates funds from other sources in amounts estimated to sufficiently substitute alternative resources from the next two years of foregone revenues due to a freeze on tax increases. In future years, the State would need to identify further appropriations of alternative resources to the unemployment compensation fund in lieu of employee payroll tax increases to ensure its solvency.

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Paul Sarlo (D)*,  Mike Testa (R)*,  Declan O'Scanlon (R), 

Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Labor Committee (on 01/09/2024)

Official Document