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SENATE JOINT MEMORIAL 8012
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Passed Legislature - 1995 Regular Session
State of Washington 54th Legislature 1995
Regular Session
By
Read first time 01/27/95. Referred to Committee
on Labor, Commerce & Trade.
Requesting that unemployment
benefits be removed from the IRS definition of taxable income.
TO THE HONORABLE BILL
CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND
THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AND TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED:
We, your Memorialists,
the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Washington, in
legislative session assembled, respectfully represent and petition as follows:
WHEREAS, The Federal
Internal Revenue Code currently requires individuals to pay income taxes on
unemployment benefit payments that they have received; and
WHEREAS, The Taxation
of Unemployment Insurance Benefits impacts over eight million persons annually
and reduces their income on average by seventeen percent for a total of three
billion dollars; and
WHEREAS, This Taxation
of Unemployment Benefits is an onerous burden on individuals that are generally
experiencing a dramatic reduction in income due to their loss of employment;
and
WHEREAS, The Taxation
of Unemployment Benefits undermines the purpose of Unemployment Insurance, by
dramatically reducing the amount of moneys available to workers and their
families that are experiencing a loss of wages due to no fault of their own.
In addition, local economies are adversely impacted due to the loss of income
in the community; and
WHEREAS, The Washington
State Unemployment Insurance Task Force, comprised of Business, Labor, and
Legislative members, in their 1995 Report, found the Taxation of Unemployment
Insurance Benefits to be an unfair burden on workers;
NOW, THEREFORE, Your
Memorialists respectively request that the Congress of the United States enact
legislation removing Unemployment Insurance Benefits from taxation under the
Internal Revenue Code.
BE IT
RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately transmitted to the
Honorable Bill Clinton, President of the United States, the President of the
United States Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and each
member of Congress from the State of Washington.
