Shortsighted. Shameful. That’s how the N.C. Justice Center describes an unemployment bill, signed into law today by Gov. Pat McCrory, that would repay the federal government $2.5 billion its owed for benefits supplied to North Carolina after the 2008 recession.
According to the Associated Press, the bill would reduce weekly jobless payments from $535 to $350 and the maximum number of weeks from 26 to 12 to 20 weeks, depending on the state’s unemployment rate.
“Hundreds of thousands of jobless workers thrown out of work through no fault of their own will face deepening poverty as a result of this decision,” wrote Justice Center spokesman Jeff Shaw in a statement. “Everyone in North Carolina should be disappointed in both the substance of this bill and the manner in which it was passed.” It was signed into law within the first two weeks of the start of the session with “no feedback from workers’ groups,” Shaw wrote.
He continued:
No state has ever cut unemployment benefits this sharply, this quickly. No state has ever turned down hundreds of millions in federal benefits the way this bill does. North Carolina’s legislature and Governor chose to permanently cut benefits, reduce employers’ contributions over time, and reject $700 million in federal extended benefits.
This article appears in Feb 13-19, 2013.
i voted for the SOB….. that is the last time I will be snookered by a Rep.
One term Pat…… may you rot in HELL
IHP,
How do you propose the state repay its $2.5 billion debt? Be specific.
Can you do…:
How do you imagine moving thousands of people from unemployment to bankruptcy will help the state repay the debt? Be specific.
It should be apparent to even the casual observer that the goal of the Republican party is to gain power, and nothing else. They are hijacking the state’s busiest airport, gutting the regulatory agencies, laying off teachers and public workers then blaming the President for NC’s high unemployment, stripping working capital from the North Carolina Rail Road, ripping the rug out from under unemployed people, abandoning the working poor who cannot afford medical insurance, and have proposed shifting the state tax burden from the people who have wealth to the people who buy things, even if they are on welfare by eliminating income tax and replacing it with a sales tax.
And an amazing number of poor and working people will keep voting for them.
Translation of DLP’s post:
“I’m more immature than a second-grader, so I’m going to answer a question with a question, then do the only thing I am capable of doing: a partisan rant against a political party that the person I’m ranting against didn’t even vote for.”
Anyway, taxes are withheld from unemployment benefits, so it’s unlikely that someone going from unemployment to bankruptcy will have a tax debt that is eligible for discharge.
Oddly enough, the state WAS able to afford a 5% pay increase for McCrory’s staff.
Translation of Can you do…’s post:
I don’t have an answer so I will call you derogatory names.