Ohio lawmakers are pushing new legislation that would slash unemployment benefits and impose new eligibility requirements to help strengthen the state’s insolvent unemployment benefits system.
House Bill 394 would reduce the maximum time Ohioans could get unemployment benefits from 26 weeks to as few as 12 weeks – tied for lowest in the nation. It would also require drug testing for some recipients and would stop benefits to Ohioans who receive disability benefits or who were fired because of drug use.
Proponents of the reforms, including major business groups, say they are urgently needed to ensure Ohio’s unemployment system can withstand a future recession better than the last one, when the state borrowed $1.6 billion from the federal government – a move that has resulted in higher taxes on employers.
Liberal groups and unions criticize the bill, however, saying it wouldn’t do enough to shore up the state’s unemployment benefits system. What the bill would do, they say, is make jobless people pay for a tax cut for employers.
The legislation, which has the support of House Republican leadership, is likely to pass the Ohio House in January, according to Rep. Barbara Sears, the Toledo-area Republican sponsoring the measure.
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