A6
BUSINESS
Wallowa County Chieftain
Wednesday, August 3, 2022
Employment Department readies new computer system
By PETER WONG
Oregon Capital Bureau
Oregon businesses and
workers will begin to see the
rollout of a new computer
system for the Employment
Department after more than
a decade of false starts and
frustrations.
When the transition is
completed in more than
three years, the new sys-
tem will automate employer
payroll and tax records,
employee claims and bene-
û ts from the state unemploy-
ment trust fund — and also
contributions and beneû ts
for Oregon’s new program
of paid family leave, which
starts in 2023.
“It is a complex proj-
ect and a multiyear eû ort to
transform the Employment
Department business pro-
cesses and core technology
so that they are more û exi-
ble, adaptable and eû cient,=
said David Gerstenfeld, act-
ing director of the agency
since May 2020.
On Sept. 6, the new sys-
tem will go live with Ore-
gon employers û ling their
third-quarter payroll reports,
on which their unemploy-
ment tax payments are
based. Employers also will
use the new system to gain
access to their unemploy-
ment tax rates.
On Aug. 28, the two cur-
rent systems that handle
those functions will shut
down to allow for the transi-
tion to the new system.
“We are doing this to
make sure all the remaining
work is completed,= Ger-
stenfeld said. “We think this
will not have an impact on
most employers,= because
they should have completed
û ling payroll reports for
EO Media Group, File
Oregon’s employment department has developed a new computer system that will automate
employer payroll and tax records, employee claims and benefi ts from the state unemployment
trust fund.
the second quarter of 2022,
which ended June 30.
He said some employ-
ers that took part in agency
focus groups were invited
to log on to a copy of the
new system so they could
become familiar with how it
operates.
“It was positive over-
all,= he said, and suggested
adjustments will be incorpo-
rated into future work on the
system.
<Our staû has run more
than 1,500 test scenarios
with a 99% pass rate,= he
added. “Those scenarios that
did not pass were sent back
to the team, û xed and will be
retested. We are also work-
ing with other state agencies
and organizations we share
data and processes with to
ensure those connections are
intact and working the way
they need to.=
One of those agencies
is the Oregon Department
of Revenue, which is the
repository for the unemploy-
ment payroll taxes paid by
employers. Employees do
not contribute to the unem-
ployment trust fund.
The new system, Frances
Online, is named in honor
of Frances Perkins, U.S.
labor secretary during the
12 years Franklin D. Roos-
evelt was president and also
the û rst woman appointed to
a presidential Cabinet back
in 1933.
It will be paid for from
$89.6 million that the
U.S. Department of Labor
granted to the state agency
back in 2009, and has been
sitting in the unemployment
trust fund. The 2021 Leg-
islature added more in the
current two-year state bud-
get for startup costs con-
nected with paid family
leave — Oregon is one of 10
states with such programs
— but that money will be
repaid from employer and
employee contributions to
the program.
States run their own
unemployment trust funds,
but the Department of Labor
oversees them under an
arrangement that goes back
more than 80 years to the
Great Depression.
The vendor is FAST
Enterprises, based in Cen-
tennial, Colorado, outside
Denver.
On Jan. 1, Oregon
employers and employ-
ees will begin under a sec-
ond phase of the new sys-
tem to contribute their
shares toward another fund
for family-leave beneû ts.
Overall contributions are
capped at 1% of employee
wages, split between 60%
from employees (.6%) and
40% from employers (.4%).
Actual beneû t payments are
scheduled to start Sept. 3,
2023.
Lawmakers last year
changed the start dates under
the original 2019 law, which
covers a range of situations.
A third phase of the new
system will start in 2024,
when claims and beneû ts for
unemployed workers will
make the transition.
The project is scheduled
for completion by the end
of 2025, six months after the
end of the state’s 2023-25
budget cycle.
Gerstenfeld was with the
agency, but not its director,
when Oregon got the $89.6
million in federal funds for
a new system back in 2009.
The current mainframe sys-
tem dates back to 1993, and
it relies on a computer pro-
gramming language that
dates back to 1959.
Frequent changes in
agency directors, and a lack
of sustained focus, stalled
the project for years.
The system proved
unable to handle the û ood
of unemployment beneû t
claims û led with the agency
at the onset of the coronavi-
rus pandemic — more than
half a million claims within
a couple of months, as busi-
nesses shut down or cur-
tailed operations — and also
multiple beneû t programs
that Congress approved
in response in 2020 and
2021. Among them: Ben-
eû ts to self-employed and
gig workers who had never
before paid unemployment
payroll taxes.
In contrast, during the
Great Recession more than
a decade ago, Congress
approved repeated exten-
sions of federal unemploy-
ment beneû ts 4 up to 99
& Skylight
light
ry
Gallery
weeks — when unemployed
workers exhausted their 26
weeks of beneû ts from state
trust funds. But it took 18
months for unemployment
to reach peak levels during
that downturn. The exten-
sions ended in 2013.
Past performance
FAST Enterprises was the
vendor for two other major
Oregon projects in the past
decade.
One is the GenTax sys-
tem for the Department of
Revenue, which rolled it out
between 2013 and 2017 to
replace a system that dated
back to the 1980s. The other
was a new system for the
Division of Driver and Motor
Vehicle Services, which com-
pleted its three-year rollout
of its Service Transformation
Project in 2011. It enables
the DMV to comply with the
requirements of the federal
Real ID Act of 2005 to make
driver licenses more secure.
FAST Enterprises also has
done work for Portland city
government.
State government has had
a history of failed computer
projects going back more
than three decades.
Because of the û asco with
the Cover Oregon website,
which led Oregon to aban-
don its own state-run health
insurance marketplace in
2014 and rely on the fed-
eral exchange, new state
computer projects are sub-
ject to greater scrutiny by
the Department of Adminis-
trative Services, the Legisla-
ture and outside participants
in addition to the agencies
involved. Oregon and Ora-
cle Corp. settled a lawsuit in
2016, but the state recouped
only a portion of the $240
million spent on the project.
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Joseph United
Methodist Church
Grace Lutheran
Church
3rd & Lake St. " Joseph
409 West Main - Enterprise
10 AM Worship
Online AND In Person
SUNDAY
WORSHIP
For More Info
541-432-3102
JosephUMC.ORG
at 9am
Pastor Cherie Dearth
Pastor John B. King Jr
phone (message): 541-426-4633
web: gracelutheranenterprise.com
Enterprise
Christian Church
St.
St. Patrick9s
Patrick’s
Episcopal
Church
Episcopal Church
85035 Joseph Hwy " (541) 426-3449
We have ‘In-person worship” @ 9:00 am
(Guidelines observed)
Sunday School at 10:30
Parking Lot Radio/Facebook @ 9:00
100 NE 3rd St, Enterprise
NE 3rd & Main St
541-426-3439
Worship Service
Sunday 9:30am
David Bruce
Pastor, Enterprise Christian Church
Lostine
Presbyterian Church
Summit Church
Discussion Group 9:30 AM
Worship Service 11:00 AM
at the Cloverleaf Hall in Enterprise
Childrens program during service
Blog: dancingforth.blogspot.com
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107 E. Main " Enterprise " 541-426-3351
www.bookloftoregon.com
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Pastor: David Pendleton
541.398.0597
Hwy 82, Lostine
www.summitchurchoregon.org
Stephen Kliewer, Minister
Cloverleaf Hall • 668 NW 1st St. • Enterprise, OR 97828
Wallowa
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of God
702 West Hwy 82
Wallowa, Oregon
541-886-8445
Sunday School " 9:am
Worship Service " 10:am
Pastor Tim Barton
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Seventh-Day Adventist
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Christ Covenant
Church
Pastor Terry Tollefson
Church Ofoce: 541-263-0505
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723 College Street, Lostine
Enterprise Community
Congregational Church
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BIG BROWN CHURCH
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P.O. Box N. Enterprise, OR 97828
Church 541-426-3751
School 541-426-8339
Pastor David Ballard 503-810-9886
Sunday Worship 11:00 am
Bible Study:
Sundays, 9:30 am
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Interim Pastor Rev Dr. Craig Pesti-Strobel
10:30 a.m. - Noon
301 NE First St. • Enterprise, OR
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