Pa. legislators reach deal on jobless benefits
The compromise is an attempt to keep residents from losing up to 13 weeks of U.S. compensation.
HARRISBURG - A deal to avoid letting 45,000 Pennsylvanians lose unemployment-compensation benefits was announced by state legislative leaders late Wednesday, with limits on the maximum size of benefit checks and a requirement that recipients look for work.
The compromise would cap the largest weekly benefit check at $573 for next year. The bill also would count severance pay of more than $17,800 against benefits, a move that would apply to about 6,000 beneficiaries.
The average weekly benefit in Pennsylvania is about $310.
House Majority Leader Mike Turzai (R., Allegheny) said the compromise was fair to employers and employees and amounted to the state's only unemployment-compensation reforms in at least a decade. Republicans projected it would save the unemployment-compensation fund more than $114 million this year.
"We never viewed this as a number issue," Turzai told reporters. "This was always about the opportunity to get some significant reforms."
Lawmakers are scrambling to prevent people from losing up to 13 weeks of federal benefits, a possibility that has arisen because of Pennsylvania's improving unemployment rate.
Without a fix, 45,000 people will be dropped from the rolls within days, and 90,000 others by year's end would not be eligible for the additional weeks of benefits.
The 13 weeks of unemployment compensation are available to people who have received benefits for 72 weeks.
"If we do this, they don't lose any benefits. They might see a slight delay," said Rep. Ron Miller (R., York), chairman of the Labor and Industry Committee and a lead GOP negotiator on the issue.
Rep. Bill Keller of Philadelphia, who led talks for the House Democrats, said the deal helped avert a Republican-sponsored proposal that would have cut benefits by $750 million a year "and let business off the hook."
The House voted Wednesday night, 195-3, in favor of an amendment that contained the compromise language, setting the stage for a final House vote Thursday.
Erik Arneson, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R., Delaware), said that if the bill passed the House as expected, the Senate would take it up Friday, "and we believe it is something our members can support."
Kevin Harley, spokesman for Gov. Corbett, said the administration was working with the legislature but declined to say if the governor supported the compromise.