§ 552-a. Re-employment service fund. 1. There is hereby established in
the joint custody of the commissioner of taxation and finance and the
state comptroller a fund to be known as the "re-employment service
fund".

2. The re-employment service fund shall consist of all moneys
collected and received by the commissioner from employers pursuant to
section five hundred eighty-one-b of this article as well as interest
and penalties associated with such collection. All moneys collected as
contributions and interest relating to re-employment services under this
article shall be deposited in a bank, trust company or industrial bank
designated by the state comptroller. Moneys so deposited shall be
credited immediately to the account of the re-employment service fund
and shall be used for the purposes set forth in section five hundred
ninety-eight of this article. Moneys in such fund may be invested by the
state comptroller in accordance with the provisions of section
ninety-eight of the state finance law, and shall be used for the
purposes specified herein. Any balance in such fund shall not lapse at
any time but shall remain continuously available for such purposes,
provided, however, that it shall be subject to the crediting provisions
of subdivision five of this section.

3. Moneys in the re-employment service fund shall be kept separate
from and shall not be commingled with any other moneys in the custody of
the commissioner of taxation and finance and the state comptroller. All
deposits of such moneys shall, if required by the state comptroller, be
secured by obligations of the United States or of this state of market
value equal at all times to the amount of the deposit and all banks and
trust companies are authorized to give such securities for such
deposits.

4. Moneys of the fund shall be used exclusively for the purpose of
providing additional automated systems and staff to provide enhanced
re-employment services and claimant management activities for
unemployment compensation claimants and for the payment of associated
administrative costs relating to unemployment compensation claimants.
The moneys shall be paid out of the fund on the audit and warrant of the
state comptroller on vouchers certified or approved by such commissioner
or his or her duly designated officer.

5. The re-employment service fund shall not be used in whole or in
part for any purpose or in any manner which (a) would permit its
substitution for, or a corresponding reduction in, federal funds that
would be available in its absence to finance expenditures for the
administration of this article; or (b) would cause the appropriate
agency of the United States government to withhold any part of an
administrative grant which would otherwise be made.

6. On or before January thirty-first, two thousand one, the
commissioner shall submit a report to the chairman of the assembly ways
and means committee, the ranking minority member of the assembly ways
and means committee, the chairman of the senate finance committee, the
ranking minority member of the senate finance committee, and the
director of the division of the budget regarding the re-employment
services fund established pursuant to this section. The report shall
contain the following information:

(a) the amount of money deposited in the re-employment services fund
for each year of its existence;

(b) the number of department employees funded through the
re-employment services fund;

(c) the results of the activities engaged in by department employees
funded through the re-employment services fund.