Panel defers stimulus bill to take $98 million

• By MICHELLE MILLHOLLON
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Jun 22, 2009 - Page: 6A

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A state Senate committee rejected legislation Sunday night that would allow the state to accept $98 million in federal unemployment dollars.

The Senate Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations voted 4-2 in favor of deferring House Bill 841.

With less than five days left in the legislative session, the bill likely is dead.

The committee acted on the legislation as a handful of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s aides looked on.

The legislation sparked controversy after the House amended the bill to accept federal stimulus money that Jindal wants to reject.
Some lawmakers in the House complained that state Rep. Avon Honey, D-Baton Rouge, “snuck” the amendment onto the bill.

Honey told the Senate committee Sunday that he is “trying to assist the working poor.”

Tim Barfield, executive director of the Louisiana Workforce Commission, the agency that once was called the state Department of Labor, said accepting the money could raise taxes for businesses.

“It’s the employers who pay these taxes,” he said.

The $98 million is designed to encourage states to modernize the way unemployment benefits eligibility is calculated.

Louisiana excludes the most recent three to six months of employment in determining eligibility for benefits.

The federal government wants states to eliminate some of that lag time, a change that would help roughly 4,000 people in Louisiana.
Jindal contends the change would lead to higher taxes for businesses. Backers of the money argue it is desperately needed in Louisiana and that Jindal’s stance is part of his bid to raise his national profile.

The bill initially went to the Senate Finance Committee, which sent it to the Senate floor.

State Sen. Neil Riser, R-Columbia and chairman of the Senate Labor Committee, pushed Sunday for his panel to also hear the bill.
Four of the committee’s seven members are Republican like Jindal.
State Sen. Eric LaFleur, D-Ville Platte, argued the bill got a fair hearing in the Senate Finance Committee and did not need an additional hearing.