Various changes to the unemployment insurance law. (FE)

special committee Under current law, DWD must submit a statement regarding the unemployment insurance financial outlook to the governor and legislative leadership by April 15 of every odd-numbered year. The report must contain all of the following: 1) financial projections of unemployment insurance operations, including benefit payments, tax collections, borrowing or debt repayments, and any amounts of interest charges and the economic and public policy assumptions upon which the projections are based, and the impact upon the projections of variations from those assumptions; 2) proposed changes to the laws relating to unemployment insurance financing, benefits, and administration and financial projections under the proposed changes; 3) if there are significant cash reserves in the unemployment fund, the justifications for maintaining them; and 4) if program debt is projected at the end of the forecast period, the reasons DWD is not proposing to liquidate the debt.

This bill changes the submittal deadline of the statement to May 31 of every even-numbered year. The bill also requires the statement to contain proposed methods for liquidating any debt, instead of the reasons DWD is not proposing to liquidate any debt.

Under current law, DWD must submit a report of the activities of the Council on Unemployment Insurance to the governor and legislative leadership by May 15 of each odd-numbered year. Current law also requires DWD to submit to each member of the legislature by June 15 of each odd-numbered year an updated statement of unemployment insurance financial outlook.

The bill replaces the two aforementioned requirements with a single requirement for DWD to submit, by January 31 of each even-numbered year, a report of the activities of the Council on Unemployment Insurance and the most recent statement regarding the unemployment insurance financial outlook to the governor and legislative leadership, rather than to every member of the legislature.

Finally, under current law, after the report and statement are submitted to the governor and leadership on May 15 of each odd-numbered year, the governor may convene a special committee to review the financial outlook statement and the activities report. This bill repeals that provision. Under current law, the governor may otherwise convene a committee by executive order.

Benefits for certain employees Under current law, a claimant for UI benefits is ineligible to receive any benefits for a week in which the claimant performs 32 or more hours of work. This bill requires DWD to disregard an employee's hours worked for an employer in a given week and wages payable to the employee for that week when determining the employee's benefit eligibility if certain conditions apply, including that the employer requires the employee to work during the week as a condition of continued employment with the employer and the employer is unable to pay wages because a government unit or the federal government fails to appropriate funds to the employer.

Effect of criminal convictions Current law provides that no finding of fact or law, determination, decision, or judgment in any action or administrative or judicial proceeding in law or equity not arising under the UI law made with respect to the rights or liabilities of a party to an action or proceeding under the UI law is binding in an action or proceeding under the UI law.

The bill provides that notwithstanding this provision, a final order or judgment of conviction for a crime entered by a court is binding on the convicted person in an action or proceeding under the UI law that relates to the criminal conviction, and that a person convicted of a crime is precluded from denying the essential allegations of the criminal offense that is the basis for the conviction in an action or proceeding under the UI law.

Reimbursable employer debt assessment Under current law, DWD must annually determine the total amount due and uncollectible from nonprofit employers that have elected what is known as reimbursement financing (reimbursable employers), and DWD must then charge that amount to an uncollectible reimbursable benefits account in the unemployment reserve fund. Whenever, as of a given year, that account has a negative balance of $5,000 or more, DWD must assess all such nonprofit reimbursable employers to reimburse for the uncollectible amount, except that employers that would otherwise be assessed less than $10 are not assessed, and their portion is instead applied to the amount owed by other employers on a pro rata basis.

Also under current law, pursuant to 2015 Wisconsin Act 334 , $2,000,000 was set aside in the unemployment reserve fund to repay reimbursable employers for erroneous payments charged to them that resulted from a false statement or representation (e.g., identity theft).

The bill does the following:

1. Raises the threshold for charging a reimbursable nonprofit employer the assessment to $20 instead of $10.

2. Allows DWD, in lieu of or in addition to assessing nonprofit reimbursable employers as described above, to apply moneys from the $2,000,000 set aside to the uncollectible reimbursable benefits account described above, subject to certain limitations.

Waiver of overpayments Current law requires the recovery of benefits that were erroneously paid to an individual to be waived if certain conditions apply, including that the erroneous payment was the result of a departmental error. Current law specifies what does and does not constitute a “departmental error” and also provides that if a determination or decision is amended, modified, or reversed by an appeal tribunal (administrative law judge), the Labor and Industry Review Commission, or any court, that action is not to be treated as establishing a departmental error.

This bill specifically provides that, for the purposes of the waiver of recovery of benefits, a “departmental error” does not include an error made by an administrative law judge.

Collection of debt by Department of Revenue Subject to certain exceptions, current law requires a state agency and the Department of Revenue to enter into a written agreement to have DOR collect certain amounts owed to the state agency. This bill prohibits DOR from entering into an agreement with DWD for the collection of amounts owed to DWD under the UI law.

Fiscal agent election of employer status Generally, under current law, an individual who receives long-term support services in his or her home through certain government-funded care programs is considered to be an employer under the UI law of a person who provides those services to the individual. Such individuals may use fiscal agents, whose responsibilities include remitting any federal UI taxes or state UI contributions owed by the individual as a result of that employment.

The bill allows a private agency that serves as a fiscal agent or contracts with a fiscal intermediary to serve as a fiscal agent to such an individual receiving long-term support services to elect to instead to be the employer of one or more employees providing those services, subject to certain requirements.