The NJ State Legislature is currently considering Senate Bill 1813 (S-1813) which if passed, will soften the impact of the planned July 1 massive $1 billion employer funded unemployment tax hike that every business in NJ is facing.  As you may know, the NJ Unemployment Insurance Fund is insolvent due to many raids on the fund in past years by various governors and the legislature to balance the state budget.  Unfortunately due to the deep recession and accompanying layoffs in NJ, the fund is now about $1.7 billion dollars short.   In order to keep weekly unemployment checks flowing to laid off workers, the Federal Government has had to bail out the state.  This borrowed money must be repaid to the Federal Government beginning on July 1.  If nothing is done by the state legislature by then, every employer in the state will be required to pay on average $400 per employee on July 1 to bring the unemployment insurance fund back into solvency. 

S-1813 would reduce the amount of money owed this year by all NJ businesses, however; there is nothing to prevent the entire balance being owed on July 1, 2011.  In addition this bill does not address the systemic problems in NJ’s unemployment law that helped cause the problem and if not corrected will continue to cause higher taxes on NJ businesses.

Please follow the link here to read the testimony of the NJ Business and Industry Association (NJBIA) before the Senate Labor Committee which is holding public hearings on the bill.  It will help explain the details of the problem and the proposed solutions. 


NESPA urges each and every employer to contact your state representatives to urge them to work with the NJBIA in crafting a fair and workable solution to this problem.  Click here to find your NJ state legislators and how to contact them.