Senate Bill No. 1219 proposes to increase the financial threshold for classifying unemployment compensation fraud as a felony. Specifically, the bill raises the limit from $500 to $2,000, meaning that fraudulent activities involving amounts of $2,000 or less will be classified as a class A misdemeanor, while those exceeding $2,000 will be classified as a class D felony. The bill modifies the existing legal language by replacing references to "himself or herself" with "such person" and "his or her" with "such person's" to maintain consistency in terminology.

The bill is set to take effect on October 1, 2025, and is not expected to have any fiscal impact on the state or municipalities, as cases of unemployment compensation fraud are rare and fines for such offenses have not been collected in the past two decades. The penalties for a class A misdemeanor include up to 364 days in prison and a fine of up to $2,000, while a class D felony can result in up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000.