3946

VETOES

409.

This bill provides unemployment insurance for
certain State and local government employees, and, with
minor exception, is identical to House Bill 578.

My objection to Senate Bill 409 is to its provision
that, although employment services rendered after March
31, 1975, are covered, benefits cannot begin until the
termination of the Federal supplemental unemployment
assistance program. According to the United States
Department of Labor, that provision would make the
Maryland law inconsistent with the Federal Act
authorizing the supplemental unemployment assistance
program (P.L. 93—567) and with the Agreement entered into
between the Department of Labor and the State.

The effect of this inconsistency, according to the
Employment Security Administration, may be to cause the
Department of Labor to refuse to reimburse the State for
supplemental unemployment benefits paid under that
program. In the first four months of 1975, nearly
$1,000,000 in such benefits were paid to over 5,000
claimants. The cost to the State, on an annualized
basis, if it received no federal reimbursement, could
approximate $3,000,000 — a cost it cannot afford.

Whatever the merits of extending unemployment
insurance coverage to public employees may be, I cannot
jeopardize the existing program of supplemental benefits,
so sorely needed at this time.

For this reason, I have vetoed Senate Bill 409.

Sincerely,

/s/ Marvin Mandel

Governor

Senate Bill No. 442 — Water Quality Loan Act

AN ACT concerning

Water Quality Loan of 1975

FOR the purpose of authorizing the creation of a State
debt in the aggregate amount of Fifty Million
Dollars ($50,000,000), the proceeds thereof to be
used to provide State grants to assist in the
construction and equipping of sewage treatment