BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  SB 1211
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   August 4, 2010

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Felipe Fuentes, Chair

                    SB 1211 (Romero) - As Amended:  June 29, 2010 

          Policy Committee:                             InsuranceVote:12-0

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program:  
          No     Reimbursable:              

           SUMMARY  

          This bill requires the Employment Development Department (EDD)  
          to determine an individual has been overpaid unemployment  
          insurance (UI) benefits if those benefits are based on  
          employment income from serving as an elected official. This bill  
          authorizes EDD to file a related civil action for recovery of UI  
          benefit overpayments and requires EDD to adopt related  
          regulations by July 1, 2011. 

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          No direct fiscal impact for the EDD to continue oversight of the  
          unemployment insurance program and modify regulations to comply  
          with requirements of this bill. 

           COMMENTS  

           1)Rationale  . This bill authorizes EDD to pursue recovery of  
            overpaid UI benefits from elected officials. Under current  
            law, eligible income is defined for the purpose of  
            establishing UI benefit levels. This bill specifies that  
            employment income from serving in public office shall not be  
            considered for determining UI benefits. 

           2)Background . The UI program is a federal-state program  
            providing weekly UI payments to eligible workers who lose jobs  
            through no fault of their own. The UI program is financed by  
            unemployment tax contributions paid by employers for each  
            worker. During relatively low rates of unemployment, eligible  
            individuals receive weekly UI payments for up to 26 weeks. 

          Due to current high rates of unemployment the federal government  








                                                                  SB 1211
                                                                  Page  2

            has provided emergency extensions to these benefits. Weekly UI  
            benefits are generally 50 percent of the claimant's average  
            weekly wage, up to $450. The UI benefit depends on the amount  
            of wages earned during a particular base period.  This bill  
            excludes wages earned as an elected official from the UI  
            benefit base period calculation. 




           Analysis Prepared by  :    Mary Ader / APPR. / (916) 319-2081