Senate labors to overhaul agency

COLUMBIA -- Converting the troubled Employment Security Commission into a new state Department of Workforce is in the works in the House and Senate, but a plan for how to pay for unemployment benefits in the future is not yet on the table.

The Senate on Tuesday continued debate on a plan to overhaul the jobless benefits agency and is expected to resume talks today. The House is poised to take up its version of the bill as early as this week.

Both bills would rename the agency and strip the current three commissioners of their administrative authority and shift their primary responsibility to hearing appeals about unemployment claims.

The House bill would put the commissioners in the position until the end of the year when their elected terms expire and then transfer their duties to the Administrative Law Court.

The Senate's version allows Commissioners Billy McLeod, Becky Richardson and McKinley Washington -- all former legislators -- to serve their out terms and run for re-election. But the commissioners' current more-than-$100,000 salaries would be re-evaluated. Their salaries have increased by more than $30,000 since 1995.

Sen. Greg Ryberg, an Aiken Republican who is leading debate on the agency's overhaul, said the commissioners have a good track record when it comes to hearing claim appeals, despite criticism that they allowed the fund that pays out unemployment benefits to go broke under their watch.

South Carolina has borrowed about $800 million from the federal government since late 2008 to cut unemployment checks. The state must figure out a way to repay that money with interest and rebuild the fund so it can pay benefits in the future.

Both the House and Senate versions of the legislation would give the governor the power to appoint an executive director. The House's bill calls for future directors to first be nominated by a screening committee while the Senate bill would require the upper chamber to approve the governor's choice.

The bills are most likely destined for conference committee in the next couple of months, but before that happens, the legislators in both chambers must design a plan to pay off the federal debt and rebuild the unemployment benefits trust fund. The benefits come from fees paid by employers of $87 to $427 a year that vary depending on certain criteria for each worker on the payroll.

Ryberg said on Friday that legislators will receive the second portion of a report by The Lucas Group that will outline strategies for charging employers in the future.

Ryberg and legislative leaders want to create a system that rewards businesses that rarely lay off workers with the lowest rates while charging higher rates for employers' that overuse the system.

Reach Yvonne Wenger at 803-926-7855 or ywenger@postandcourier.com.