Pennsylvania lawmakers reported agreement Monday on a four-year exit strategy designed to end annual state subsidies for what is supposed to be a federally-funded unemployment compensation claims-taking system.

Under the new plan - which passed its first test vote in the House Labor Relations Committee with broad, bipartisan support - the state would provide an additional $115 million over through the next four years.

That money is intended to cover both technological improvements to the system, and operating subsidies to pay for staffing levels needed to guarantee adequate service levels in the interim.

Perhaps most importantly, supporters say the compromise legislation, if enacted, will avert another stand-off of the type that occurred late last year when a legislative block on further funding caused layoffs of nearly 500 L&I staffers and frustratingly long wait times for anyone trying to call into the system.

That stand-off eased a bit in April, when legislative leaders and Gov. Tom Wolf finally agreed to a $15 million appropriation for the jobless benefits services until a longer-term fix could be found.

The new agreement, hashed out this month in behind-the-scenes negotiations, sets up two tracks of funding to be swept out of current payments by Pennsylvania businesses and workers into the state's Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund, which is supposed to be used to fund unemployment benefits.

The first is a $30.2 million pool that would be paid out over the next four years as a reimbursement for the cost of replacing technology systems that all sides agree are badly outdated, as certain benchmarks are met.

The second allocates $85 million for additional staffing to maintain current service levels until the new system is fully on-line. Those funds would be allocated as follows: $30 million in 2018; $25 million in 2019; $20 million in 2018; and $10 million in 2021.

The sum total is $40 million more than the $75 million House Labor Relations Committee Chairman Rob Kauffman initially proposed this fall, but less than the $160 million state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale suggested might be needed in his own report earlier this year.

The middle ground was arrived at in negotiations between Kauffman and Rep. Leanne Krueger-Branecky, a Democrat from Montgomery County.

The big motivator appeared to be a bipartisan desire to avoid a repeat of last year's stalemate.

One year ago, a block of Republican state senators, led by York County fiscal conservative and current gubernatorial candidate Scott Wagner, held up a 2017 system subsidy last fall out of concerns that the program had become a bottomless and taxpayer-funded money pit.

It resulted in the elimination of 521 L&I positions, closure of three of the system's seven service centers, and led to jobless claimants reporting an average wait of five hours to reach a claims agent, when they were lucky enough to get through at all.

While not ideal to many of her colleagues, Krueger-Branecky said, the new funding compromise is "good enough" to keep a vital safety net service functioning while longer-term fixes are underway.

Kauffman agreed.

"We do not want a re-do of last year," he said, directly addressing a group of L&I employees in attendance for Monday's committee meeting. "(We don't want that) for you all and your families, or the people of this Commonwealth who depend on your good service."

Offering further hope that the crisis that erupted in 2016 won't repeat, Kauffman noted this month's negotiations also included Sen. Kim Ward, the chair of the state Senate's Labor and Industry Committee.

PennLive's efforts to reach the Wolf Administration about House Bill 1915 were not successful for this report.

But Wolf spokesman Mark Nicastre told the online news service Capitolwire.com by email that "the Governor appreciates the steps taken by the committee to move the issue forward and he will continue to review the proposal."

Kauffman said he is optimistic the administration will ultimately accept the compromise.

The House and Senate are both expected to take the bill up for final passage in December.

Of the 499 people laid off last year, 187 employees have returned to work, according to members of Local 668 of Service Employees International Union, which represents the jobless benefits system staff.

It was not immediately clear if the Kauffman / Krueger-Braneky compromise would permit the department to call back additional staffers.