FRANKFORT, Ky. — Members of the Unemployment Insurance Reform Task Force had a tall task in front of them. 

What You Need To Know

  • Lawmakers have been working on ways to reform the unemployment system

  • The Unemployment Insurance Reform Task Force finalized its recommendations Tuesday

  • The task force, made up of mostly Republicans, wants to pursue reforms to help employers who pay into the system

  • The two Democrats on the task force voted against the recommendations

 

“We’re looking at anything and everything to help the unemployment system,” Sen. Mike Nemes (R-Shepherdsville) said.

Nemes co-chairs the task force, which was created earlier this year because of a litany of problems within the unemployment system, which was flooded with claims as the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

The task force just finalized a list of recommendations for the next session, which includes several ways to help employers who pay into the system, and aims to push more people back into the workforce.  

Nemes says the goal is to make the system more stable.

“In safeguarding that, we have to have a system that works,” Nemes said. “And it isn’t just the funding, which you mostly heard today. We do have to have the funds solvent. We can’t have a fund that is bankrupt and do what we need to do.”

There is some concern, particularly among labor unions, that these recommendations could lead to lower benefits for the unemployed.

“Look, any changes you make to unemployment is going to hurt working people in Kentucky,” said Kentucky AFL-CIO secretary Jeff Wiggins.

One recommendation asks lawmakers to consider House Bill 317 from 2019, which would cut the amount of weeks someone can pull from unemployment while decreasing the benefits someone gets over time until those benefits run out.

The task force’s only two Democrats voted against the recommendations, including Rep. McKenzie Cantrell (D-Louisville).  

“These are people who are going to return to the workforce. They’re looking for work. They want to work. These are not the people we need to be penalizing,” Cantrell said. “These are not the people who we need to incentivize to work.

Rep. Russell Webber (R-Shepherdsville), who is also a co-chair of the task force, says lawmakers need to act on reforms before another crisis happens.

“I’m not sure this system can withstand another hit and we needed to make sure that there were reforms in place to proceed forward,” he said.

Lawmakers will consider the recommendations during the next session, which starts Jan. 4. 

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