Passed important Unemployment Insurance reform legislation in Washington state

Perhaps the biggest success of the 2009 session was the passage of Substitute Senate Bill 5963, the UI conformity bill. This bill was necessary to bring our UI system back into conformity with federal law, maintaining over $300 million in federal tax credits for Washington employers. It also included modest tax relief for employers at every rate class in exchange for going back to two-quarter averaging (charging employers for an employee’s two highest earning quarters instead of four). These changes would also prevent overcharging employers and stop excessive reserves from building up in the UI trust fund.