House funds two summers of unemployment insurance for hourly school workers with $100 million allocation

The House on May 16 adopted House File 1143 to fund two years of unemployment-insurance reimbursements for hourly school workers, including paraprofessionals, bus drivers and food-service employees. The motion to suspend rules and take the bill up as an urgency matter was adopted; the appropriation itself was reported as funded by a $77 million repurposing from the Northern Lights Express contingency plus approximately $22 million in other savings, for a total $100 million appropriation.

Supporters said the measure reimburses districts for UI claims that have flowed through since the change in unemployment eligibility two years earlier, and argued the allocation preserves school budgets and stabilizes workforces that return each fall. Opponents in earlier debates had urged a longer-term fix rather than a sunsets-and-fund approach; proponents said the appropriation holds districts harmless in the next biennium and provides time for a longer-term funding solution.

Representative Greenman described the funding as paid for in the first biennium and producing projected savings in the tails; Representative Reimer noted the allocation shows how policy priorities can be addressed by repurposing funds from projects that are not moving forward.

The bill passed on final action after the House voted to take the measure up; the separate technical steps to take HF1143 from the table and give it third reading preceded final passage on a recorded roll call at 131–0 for the later bill actions where recorded.