Employment-Related Funding & Workforce Enterprise

Joint Budget Committee. Under current law, employers pay an annual support surcharge to fund unemployment administration and to support the solvency of the unemployment insurance trust fund. This surcharge is deposited into several different funds. The bill adjusts the deposits as follows:

• 35% (decreased from 59.46%) to the employment support fund;
• 19% (increased from 18.92%) to the benefit recovery fund;
• 32% (increased from 21.62%) to the employment and training technology fund; and
• 14% to the workforce development fund in the workforce development enterprise (enterprise), which is created in the bill.

Each of these funds has a limit on the maximum amount of money that can be held in the fund. The bill requires the maximum amount to be adjusted for inflation based on the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood consumer price index. The bill adjusts these initial caps as follows:

• Decreases the cap for the employment support fund from $32,000,000 to $7,000,000;
• Decreases the cap for the employment and training technology fund from $31,000,000 to $13,200,000; and
• Establishes the cap for the workforce development fund at $6,800,000.

The $15,000,000 cap for the benefit recovery fund remains the same.

The enterprise is created within the division of employment and training in the department of labor and employment for the business purpose of ensuring Coloradans' access to workforce development services and to Colorado's workforce development centers.

(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)