1-1     By:  Patterson                                         S.B. No. 706

 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed February 21, 1997; February 26, 1997,

 1-3     read first time and referred to Committee on Economic Development;

 1-4     April 4, 1997, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 6,

 1-5     Nays 1; April 4, 1997, sent to printer.)

 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-7                                   AN ACT

 1-8     relating to recomputation of an employer's unemployment

 1-9     compensation experience rate based on payment by the employer of

1-10     certain voluntary contributions.

1-11           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

1-12           SECTION 1.  Subchapter C, Chapter 204, Labor Code, is amended

1-13     by adding Section 204.048 to read as follows:

1-14           Sec. 204.048.  VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTIONS.  (a)  Notwithstanding

1-15     any other provision of this subtitle, an employer for whom the

1-16     commission has computed an experience rate as of October 1 of a

1-17     calendar year that is effective for the succeeding calendar year,

1-18     as provided by Section 204.047(a), may elect to make a voluntary

1-19     payment of contributions to the commission.

1-20           (b)  The amount of a voluntary contribution may be equal to

1-21     all or part of the employer's chargebacks  during the period ending

1-22     September 30 that are used in computing the employer's experience

1-23     rate for the succeeding calendar year.  The commission shall

1-24     allocate a voluntary contribution of less than the full amount of

1-25     the employer's chargebacks first to the employer's most recent

1-26     chargebacks.

1-27           (c)  On receipt of a voluntary contribution during the period

1-28     prescribed by Subsection (d), the commission shall reduce the

1-29     employer's chargebacks by an amount equal to the contribution and

1-30     shall recompute the  experience rate applicable to that employer

1-31     for the succeeding calendar year.

1-32           (d)  An employer who elects to make a voluntary contribution

1-33     for the recomputation of the employer's experience rate must make

1-34     the contribution not later than the 30th day after the date on

1-35     which the commission mails to the employer the annual notice of the

1-36     employer's experience rate.  The employer may not revoke the

1-37     contribution after the date on which the commission uses the

1-38     contribution to recompute the employer's experience rate.

1-39           (e)  Notwithstanding Subsection (a), the commission may not

1-40     compute a new experience rate for an employer or reduce an

1-41     employer's experience rate based on a voluntary contribution made

1-42     by the employer after the expiration of the 120th day of the

1-43     calendar year for which the rate is effective.

1-44           (f)  The commission shall deposit a voluntary contribution

1-45     made under this section to the credit of the compensation fund.

1-46           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997, and

1-47     applies only to computation of an unemployment compensation

1-48     experience rate made by the Texas Workforce Commission on or after

1-49     that date.  A rate computed before that date is governed by the law

1-50     in effect on the date that the rate was computed, and the former

1-51     law is continued in effect for that purpose.

1-52           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-53     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-54     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-55     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-56     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.

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