Bill Status of HB 1683   95th General Assembly

Short Description:  FAMILY LEAVE INSURANCE PROGRAM

House Sponsors
Rep. Julie Hamos-Barbara Flynn Currie-Greg Harris, Luis Arroyo, Cynthia Soto, Karen A. Yarbrough, Edward J. Acevedo, Elizabeth Hernandez, Daniel J. Burke, Susana A Mendoza, Maria Antonia Berrios and Eddie Washington

Last Action  View All Actions

DateChamber Action
  1/13/2009HouseSession Sine Die

Statutes Amended In Order of Appearance
New Act

Synopsis As Introduced
Creates the Family Leave Insurance Program Act. Establishes a Family Leave Insurance Program, administered by the Department of Employment Security, to provide paid leave to an employee who is unavailable to work: because the employee has to care for a newborn child or a newly-placed adopted or foster child; because the employee has to care for a family member (a child, spouse, parent, or parent-in-law of the employee or a person with whom the employee has resided in the same household for 6 months or longer) who has a serious health condition; or because of the employee's own serious health condition. Contains provisions regarding: applications and qualifications for benefits, certification by a healthcare provider of the need for leave; confidentiality; notices of intention to take leave; disqualification from benefits; duration of benefits; determination of benefit amounts; deductions from benefits; relationship of the Program to other benefits, programs, and contracts; rights of employees; opting out of participation in the Program; elective coverage under the Program; recordkeeping; successor employers; creation of a FLIP Account in the custody of the State Treasurer; payments by employers and employees; limits on expenditures; adoption of rules; taxation of benefits; discrimination; required postings regarding the Act and information pertaining to the filing of a charge; severability; and other matters. Effective January 1, 2008.

 Fiscal Note (Dept. of Employment Security)
 Based on workload estimates previously provided by some of the proponents of the bill as well as information from New Jersey and California regarding their FLIP-like programs and IDES own experience with Unemployment Insurance (UI) where comparable, IDES has estimated the costs of administration for this bill. Initial start-up costs are estimated to be at least $16 million. The majority of this estimate is comprised of the costs to implement an information system to accommodate the revenue reporting and collection and benefit payment provisions of the FLIP program. Cost incurred would also include the efforts of an estimated 5 to 10 full-time equivalents for the creation and establishment of rules, policies, procedures, etc. for reporting, claims-taking, adjudication and appeals. Ongoing annual administrative costs are estimated to be at least $46 million annually. Based on the detailed UI data regarding time charges for claims-taking, adjudication, etc., with some common sense adjustments based on differences in the FLIP structure, along with the workload estimated provided by the proponents would indicate that roughly 400 full-time equivalents would be needed to administer the program. This is also relatively proportional to the staffing levels for similar programs as reported by New Jersey and California. The vast majority of the ongoing costs would be for the salary, benefits, and administrative overhead for these positions. A significant amount of these costs ($6 million) are the estimated annual system-related costs. Two other costs categories of significance that are NOT included above are the start-up costs for any new equipment and the ongoing annual postage costs for the program. Specific cost estimates for those components are difficult to estimate without a more specific program structure.

Actions 
DateChamber Action
  2/22/2007HouseFiled with the Clerk by Rep. Julie Hamos
  2/22/2007HouseAdded Chief Co-Sponsor Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie
  2/22/2007HouseFirst Reading
  2/22/2007HouseReferred to Rules Committee
  2/23/2007HouseAdded Chief Co-Sponsor Rep. Greg Harris
  2/27/2007HouseAssigned to Labor Committee
  2/28/2007HouseFiscal Note Requested by Rep. Dave Winters
  3/5/2007HouseAdded Co-Sponsor Rep. Luis Arroyo
  3/6/2007HouseFiscal Note Filed
  3/8/2007HouseAdded Co-Sponsor Rep. Cynthia Soto
  3/8/2007HouseAdded Co-Sponsor Rep. Karen A. Yarbrough
  3/8/2007HouseAdded Co-Sponsor Rep. Edward J. Acevedo
  3/8/2007HouseAdded Co-Sponsor Rep. Elizabeth Hernandez
  3/8/2007HouseAdded Co-Sponsor Rep. Daniel J. Burke
  3/8/2007HouseAdded Co-Sponsor Rep. Susana A Mendoza
  3/8/2007HouseAdded Co-Sponsor Rep. Maria Antonia Berrios
  3/8/2007HouseAdded Co-Sponsor Rep. Eddie Washington
  3/23/2007HouseRule 19(a) / Re-referred to Rules Committee
  1/13/2009HouseSession Sine Die

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