The unemployment insurance system tax will go down this year, despite a new training program.
Maine businesses will pay $33.7 million less than they would have without a tax overhaul adopted earlier this year, according to the Capitol News Service. The overhaul reduced the extent of unemployment payments and added a scholarship fund to retrain laid-off workers. Employers are required to pay an unemployment insurance tax on the first $12,000 of pay a worker gets, at a rate dependent on whether and how the unemployment system is used.
Fewer employees using the unemployment trust fund than were expected and the reduction in payments from 21 months to 18 months contributed to the lowered tax.
