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House Bill 1443




    Florida House of Representatives - 1997                HM 1443

        By Representative Bainter






  1                          House Memorial

  2         A memorial to the Congress of the United States

  3         urging that unemployment insurance

  4         administration and financing responsibilities

  5         be turned over to the states.

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  7         WHEREAS, unemployment insurance is currently financed

  8  and administered by an outmoded federal-state method in effect

  9  since the inception of the system in 1935, and over the years

10  serious problems have developed with the bifurcated

11  arrangement, and

12         WHEREAS, in 1996, only 58 percent of the $5.85 billion

13  in federal unemployment tax collections was actually returned

14  to the states in federal grants to administer state

15  unemployment offices, meaning employers were overcharged by

16  more than two-fifths, depriving the private sector of moneys

17  for reinvestment, hiring more workers, or providing pay

18  increases, and

19         WHEREAS, the bifurcated system results in duplicative

20  and unnecessary paperwork, and unfair and arcane allocation

21  formulae result in most states receiving less in federal grant

22  revenues than their employers pay in unemployment insurance

23  taxes, and

24         WHEREAS, unused federal unemployment insurance funds

25  are being used to offset the federal deficit instead of being

26  applied to the use for which they were dedicated, and

27         WHEREAS, unemployment insurance tax revenues collected

28  from states become federal funds subject to federal rules,

29  restrictions, and requirements that hinder efficient delivery

30  of services, NOW, THEREFORE,

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    Florida House of Representatives - 1997                HM 1443

    143-226-97






  1  Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:

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  3         That the Congress of the United States is requested to

  4  take such action as may be necessary to turn unemployment

  5  insurance over to the states and provide the states with the

  6  flexibility to determine how best to insure their workers and

  7  provide employment services.

  8         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be

  9  dispatched to the President of the United States, to the

10  President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the

11  United States House of Representatives, and to each member of

12  the Florida delegation to the United States Congress.

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