Legislature Faces COVID-19 Fallout

The Legislative Management Council is to meet again Friday in preparation for an anticipated emergency session of the state legislature, after the council held an 11-hour virtual meeting last Thursday. Teton County Senator Mike Gierau explains that the purpose of the meeting is to winnow out bills needed to address the impacts of the coronavirus.
Two bills that will receive focus this week deal with authorizing a workshare option for those employees facing lay-offs. Workshare programs let businesses temporarily reduce the hours of their employees, instead of laying them off during economic downturns. The workers keep their jobs instead of being laid off, and collect reduced unemployment benefits to partially replace their lost wages.
A second bill would give Governor Gordon broader authority to distribute money to cities, towns, counties, hospitals and the like. Gierau says the state’s COVID-19 fund has received $1¼-billion from the federal government to address its critical needs.
The bill being proposed in effect would streamline the distribution of such funds. Gierau says a special session of the full legislature has not yet been set.
 
 
 

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