Enrolled Bill Summary

            Senate Bill 280 amends the Labor Code to continue the Texas Workforce Commission until September 1, 2009. Provisions relating to local workforce development boards require the commission to establish contracting guidelines for the boards, encourage boards to raise funds for supporting collaborative reading initiatives, and ensure that boards assess the skills development needs of certain recipients. Additional provisions require the commission, in consultation with local boards, to establish criteria for evaluating each board's overall capacity to oversee and manage local funds and the delivery of local workforce services, and to use the criteria to develop performance measures to evaluate each board. The bill also establishes the nine-member local workforce development board advisory committee to advise the commission about commission programs, policies, and rules affecting local workforce development boards.

            Other provisions relating to workforce development authorize, rather than require, the commission to develop and administer a program to award scholarships for professional child-care training, require the commission to annually evaluate formulas used by the commission to distribute federal child-care development funds to local workforce boards, and require the commission to report to the legislature on the effectiveness of the commission's child-care program and the percentage of recipients of employment services under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program who meet certain wage criteria. To streamline the delivery of services provided in local career development centers, the bill requires the commission and local workforce boards to integrate the administration of certain block grant programs and the caseworker functions associated with the programs.

            Provisions relating to adult education and literacy require the commission until September 1, 2005, to develop a demand-driven workplace literacy and basic skills curriculum under contract with the Texas Education Agency and to develop workforce basic skills credentials to be used to certify mastery of the skills required by the curriculum. The bill amends the Government Code to require the Texas Workforce Investment Council to facilitate delivery of integrated adult education and literacy services. Provisions relating to a tax refund for certain employers limit the conveyance, assignment, or transfer of a tax refund for wages paid to an employee receiving medical or financial assistance, and require the employer to obtain certification from the commission to be eligible for the refund.

            The bill adds several new subchapters relating to issuance of financial obligations for the unemployment compensation fund. It authorizes the commission, if the commission determines that bond financing is more cost-effective than borrowing from the federal trust fund to pay unemployment benefits when the unemployment compensation fund has a negative balance, to request the Texas Public Finance Authority to issue up to $2 billion in bonds on its behalf to pay unemployment benefits and for certain other uses. It requires the commission to impose an unemployment obligation assessment annually on each employer entitled to an experience rating to pay bond obligations and bond administrative expenses payable in that year, and requires the assessment rate to be based on a formula prescribed by commission rule using the employer's experience rating from the previous year. It provides that the assessment is due at the same time, collected in the same manner, and subject to the same penalties and interest as the unemployment compensation assessment. It requires the commission to transfer the balance of the obligation trust fund to the compensation fund after the obligations have been fully satisfied.

            Other unemployment compensation provisions authorize the commission to deny a transfer of compensation experience if the commission determines that an employing unit acquired a part of the organization, trade, or business of an employer primarily to qualify for a reduced unemployment insurance tax rate, and prohibit unemployment benefits from being charged to the account of an employer if the employee's separation resulted from leaving the workplace to protect the employee from family violence or stalking. The bill also provides that an employee is not disqualified from unemployment compensation benefits if the employee leaves the workplace to protect the employee from family violence or stalking.

            Senate Bill 280 amends the Education Code to exempt a school or educational institution from regulation as a career school or college, formerly referred to as a proprietary school, if the owner of the school or institution applies to the commission and submits certain information. It also provides that a debt or contract relating to educational services from a career school or college that does not hold a certificate of approval from the commission is unenforceable, and establishes that each owner of a closing career school or college to which a certificate of approval has not been issued is personally liable for the amount of any refund owed to a student. Additionally, the bill specifies certain actions relating to a violation by a career school or college and authorizes the commission to issue a cease and desist order to a career school or college operating without a certificate of approval from the commission. It authorizes the commission to collect an annual fee from each career school or college to be deposited to the credit of the tuition trust account for protecting career school or college tuition. The commission is required to use money in the tuition trust account to attempt to provide to each student of a closed career school or college a full refund of the unused portion of tuition, fees, and other charges.

            Senate Bill 280 takes effect September 1, 2003, except for provisions relating to issuance of financial obligations for the unemployment compensation fund, which take effect June 20, 2003.