Maryland business leaders threw support behind Gov. Martin O’Malley’s unemployment insurance expansion Monday, reversing initial opposition in light of new amendments.
O’Malley’s bill would increase benefits and make it easier for more people to enroll in the state’s unemployment insurance system — a move encouraged by $126.8 million in federal funding promised to the state for improving the system.
The Maryland business community strongly opposed O’Malley’s measure, which offered businesses $83 million in immediate relief from insurance rates — now at an all-time high — primarily because the proposal would end up costing an additional $19 million annually down the road.
Lawmakers met with business leaders over the past several weeks to fashion a compromise to offset the proposal’s ongoing cost increase.
The amendments ax O’Malley’s $83 million in premium relief, instead giving businesses more lenience with payment deadlines and reducing interest rates for late payments from 1.5 percent to 0.5 percent for the next two years.
“We’re going to keep the federal stimulus money — the entire $127 million — in the trust fund,” said Tom Saquella, president of the Maryland Retailers Association, which announcedsupport for the amendments alongside the Maryland Chamber of Commerce on Monday. “That’s what we wanted from the beginning.”
The changes would extend unemployment insurance to 3,600 additional Marylanders, although it would tighten eligibility requirements in some areas. Unemployed people at risk of losing eligibility include those claiming they are too sick to look for work, or who were fired from their last jobs for “misconduct.”
“I don’t think anybody is wildly in love with this legislation,” said Sen. Thomas “Mac” Middleton, D-Charles County, who helped craft the amendments. “But I don’t foresee any opposition — in the House or Senate.”
The amended bill would provide an additional 26 weeks of unemployment insurance benefits to people enrolled in job training.
