Mar 29, 2017 2 min read

HARRISBURG – Legislation heading to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives would free up $15 million to improve service in the state’s unemployment compensation centers.

Senators voted 39-8 on Wednesday for the bill. Its passage follows the December layoff of 499 workers after the Senate’s Republican majority and Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf quarreled over continuing state funding for the unemployment compensation system.

House Labor and Industry Committee Chairman Rob Kauffman said the Senate bill’s concept is on the right track. He expects to take action on it quickly.

The state Department of Labor and Industry couldn’t immediately detail how the $15 million would improve services.

Department officials told Senate Labor and Industry Committee Chairwoman Kim Ward they could rehire 499 people through early September, or fewer people for the remainder of 2017.

In a statement, State Sen. Camera Bartolotta, R-Monongahela, blamed the Democratic Wolf administration what she called “poorly managed operations at the Department of Labor and Industry,” accusing the department of “gross mismanagement.

“The Department of Labor and Industry needs to be held accountable for how the $178 million in taxpayer funds, which were already allocated to improve the unemployment compensation system over the last four years, has been spent. This is why the Senate refused to blindly transfer an additional $57 million during the final days of the last legislative session. There was no promise of additional accountability from the department or the Wolf administration.

“The transfer of $15 million is not the full amount that was requested by the department. However, it allows for a reprieve until the auditor general report on the unemployment compensation system is released.”