FINAL BILL REPORT

                   SB 5571

                         PARTIAL VETO

                          C 325 L 97

                      Synopsis as Enacted

Brief Description:  Providing for a single form for employers to report unemployment insurance contributions and industrial insurance premiums and assessments.

Sponsors:  Senators Newhouse, Schow, Anderson, Horn, Heavey, Franklin, Fraser, Long and Oke; by request of Joint Task Force on Nonpayment of Employer Obligations.

Senate Committee on Commerce & Labor

House Committee on Commerce & Labor

Background:  By statute, employers (other than self-insured employers) must pay quarterly industrial insurance premiums to the Department of Labor and Industries.  The statute requires the report to include, for the period covered, a Atrue and accurate@ payroll, the total amount paid to workers, and a segregation of employment in the different premium classes.  The director also has authority to approve the sufficiency of the report and may require individual employers to file supplementary reports with the names of employees, the hours worked, the rate of pay, and the premium classes in which work was performed.

Employers paying unemployment insurance contributions must make quarterly reports to the Employment Security Department.  By statute, the reports must include the amounts paid to employees, the names of all workers, the hours worked, and any other information prescribed by the commissioner.

Summary:  The Department of Labor and Industries and the Employment Security Department must develop a plan for implementing a unified report form for industrial insurance premiums and unemployment insurance contributions.

The departments must report to the Legislature by January 1, 1998 on the plan.  The agencies must also report the results of a study that cross-matches the names or UBI numbers, or both, of employers who file reports under only one law.

Under the industrial insurance law, an alien beneficiary receives the same benefits as other beneficiaries whether residing in the U.S. or not.

The Employment Security Department is to include on the annual tax notice to employers in 1997 and 1998 the following information from the previous rate year:   (a) the taxable wages reported by the employer; (b) the employer's contribution rate and contributions paid; (c) the benefits charged to the employer's account and the benefits not charged under the Amarginal labor force attachment@ noncharging provision; and (d) the amount of contribution representing the employer's share of socialized costs.  The notice must include an explanation in plain language of socialized cost.

Votes on Final Passage:

Senate 48 0

House     96 0 (House amended)

Senate    29 16 (Senate concurred)

Effective:  July 27, 1997

Partial Veto Summary:  The provisions requiring the Employment Security Department to include on the annual tax notice to employers new information on taxable wages, contributions and benefits were vetoed.