Ohio is trying to stabilize its unemployment benefit fund, which went deeply in debt to the feds in 2008,. And both business and labor leaders agree it needs an overhaul. But they have mixed feelings over a plan state lawmakers are considering.
Republican Rep. Kirk Schuring took the ideas he heard in a working group among labor and business leaders and put them into a bill.
He notes both sides have things they like and don’t like in it.
“It’s one of those things when you have to be the mediator often times if one side is happy and the other side is mad that means something’s bad but if both sides are just ambivalent or in some cases frustrated that might mean it’s pretty dog gone good,” Schuring said.
Schuring's bill raises the tax on employers and creates a small tax on employees so they have some stake in the system.
But Schuring says his bill is just a start and will probably change during the committee process.
