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Daniels Signs Unemployment Insurance Bill

Press Release

Date: Feb. 24, 2011
Location: Indianapolis, IN
Issues: Unemployed and Low-Income

Governor Mitch Daniels today signed a bill that will bring Indiana's unemployment insurance trust fund back into structural balance in two years. Additionally, the approximately $2 billion balance owed on the federal government trust fund advances will be repaid by 2019.

"It was really urgent that we fix our system, and we did fix it in a balanced way," said Daniels. "It is a great piece of work. Senators Hershman and Boots and Representative Leonard deserve special mention. There were so many other people who participated but just to name three, I will thank them."

House Enrolled Act 1450 more closely aligns premiums paid by businesses with benefits paid to unemployed Hoosiers. Indiana's unemployment insurance trust fund has been structurally out of balance for more than a decade as a result of a series of legislative actions in the last decade which expanded unemployment benefits and eligibility requirements while simultaneously reducing the premiums employers paid into the fund to cover these benefits.

Indiana has become one of the most attractive states in the country to do business in the past six years, according to a number of national publications. The bill signed today will repair the flawed design of the unemployment system and enable Indiana to maintain its competitive business climate.

As the House Democrat walkout continued today, the governor reiterated that important education reforms, the budget and other matters under consideration in the General Assembly, will continue to move forward.

"We are not backing off of this agenda. We intend to do what it takes to see that the rest of this agenda, which a very large majority of Hoosiers voted for just three months ago, is not killed by the willfulness of the minority that lost the election," said Daniels.

Audio of the press conference is available here: http://www.in.gov/gov/files/Audio/022411audio.mp3

Video will be available later this evening on the governor's YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/INGovernor


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