Michigan Becomes First State To Curtail Jobless Aid

WASHINGTON -- Gov. Rick Snyder signed controversial legislation on Monday, making Michigan the first state in the country to reduce unemployment insurance for those who lose their jobs through no fault of their own. Starting in January, laid-off Michiganders will be eligible for 20 weeks of jobless aid, instead of the standard 26 weeks.

Snyder, a Republican, said the change was necessary to win political support in the Michigan legislature for maintaining the state's eligibility for the federal Extended Benefits program, which provides 20 weeks of benefits for the long-term unemployed. Without the bill, an estimated 35,000 Michiganders would not have received their EB checks in April.

"These benefits are a lifeline for many Michigan families who are struggling in this challenging economy," Snyder said in a statement. "Cutting them off so abruptly would have jeopardized the well-being of those who are trying hard to find work."

EB kicks in for people who exhaust 53 weeks of federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation and 26 weeks of state benefits. Opponents of the bill say the EB measure was not worth reducing the state benefits. Advocates of unemployment insurance fear other states will follow Michigan's lead.

Michigan Democrats in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives asked Snyder in a letter on Monday to veto the bill, saying the change would "turn back the clock on 50 years of needed protections for the unemployed in Michigan."

Daniel Ytterock of Redford, Mich. told HuffPost that he lost his job in publishing sales in July 2009 and is currently on the final tier of EUC. He said he doesn't love the deal, but that knowing he'll still be able to receive EB in the coming months gives him peace of mind.

"After so many months and years looking for a job, I don’t see any signs that looking for a job is going to get easier or more successful," he said. "I just feel bad for the others that follow after January."

Both federal programs are set to expire in January, and the Michigan Democrats wrote that there is "absolutely no guarantee they will be extended," meaning laid-off Michiganders could be left with just 20 weeks of benefits. "In 2010, over 171,000 individuals drew more than 20 weeks of regular UI benefits, with 130,000 of these drawing 26 weeks," the delegation wrote.

"There is no valid reason why keeping federally-financed Extended Benefits in place in Michigan should require a permanent reduction in the 26 weeks of unemployment benefits paid in our state’s UI program," Rick McHugh, a staff attorney with the National Employment Law Project, said in a statement. "The Governor’s actions today mean that Michigan will be the only state paying less than 26 weeks for their maximum duration of benefits in the U.S. Michigan has paid 26 weeks of benefits since 1954."

Many states are considering new laws to maintain eligibility for EB, which triggers based on unemployment patterns in the state over the previous two years. The legislation adjusts the trigger to look back three years instead of two.

The Michigan Chamber of Commerce lobbied against a standalone EB fix, arguing that further depleting the federal government's unemployment insurance trust fund would eventually result in higher unemployment surtaxes on businesses.

Comments

[dhhh]

12:02 AM on 04/19/2011

Mr Snyder KAAAAAH KAAAAAH KAAAAAH

[dhhh]

12:01 AM on 04/19/2011

Recall Snyder ASAP. Then i want to go after him legally...

[Freebrd]

07:47 PM on 03/30/2011

He's out of office as soon as we can recall him.

Join us in the fight:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Recall-Governor-Rick-Snyder/113418962065885

[RickInMichigan]

07:31 PM on 03/30/2011

Wow, I've just received a reply to a previous post I made from a reader from Texas. He let me know they are going to easily fix their state's 20 billion dollar budget hole by dumping 50,000 teachers and 50,000 teacher aids!
I really didn't think Texas was so uncaring for it's kids that saying 100,000 teaching and support jobs to be dumped would be thought of as an "easy fix to make". I hope this Huffington Post responder didn't have his facts right, for their kids sake.

[RickInMichigan]

07:22 PM on 03/30/2011

You know how republicans claim that raising taxes is a sin on the highest order, well here in Michigan, our new Gov has raised ours by $900 million and given every single dime to big business. This is no misstatement. It wasn't for paying our bills, it was for giving to big business along with another $500 million for a total of $1.4 billion in big business tax cuts!
And also worth noting is that these tax cuts to big business are NOT going to small businesses. You know the old song and dance from republicans that small business are the main creators of jobs...that is just their front. It's the big boys they're really concerned about.

[jimshomephone]

04:36 PM on 03/30/2011

BTW, I DID not vote for him, I voted for Virg!!

[jimshomephone]

04:34 PM on 03/30/2011

Rick Snyder's sad plan for Michigan explained by robots, since he's such a 'tough nerd' ---> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKVgiTPveXA

I am really scared, living in Michigan, that this dude is going to seriously make things worse. I am contemplating moving, but am buried in my home (what's new), and my kid's have grown up here and are close to college age. I lost my business, my wife lost her job of almost 10 years. If Snyder's idea of fixing the state is making cuts to social programs that help the people of Michigan, then cutting even more revenue for the state by this huge corporate tax package, it's crazy. He made 1.6 billion in spending reductions, yet cut revenue by 1.7 billion with his corporate tax cut. How does that make any f'n sense???

[macro focus]

01:18 PM on 03/30/2011

(Continued from a previous discussion…)

Hey Treasonous1. Just want to make sure I’m following your question. From my understanding, you are asking why unemployment insurance payments and welfare payments are not both 1. government checks, and 2. handouts. I also understand you to be saying that unemployment and welfare recipients are a special case, and are different from other recipients of government checks (such as weapons manufacturers, teachers, or to tax payers in the form of a refund check,) and that you are only considering unemployment and welfare in your question.

(I’ll continue in a response to this post…)

[macro focus]

01:21 PM on 03/30/2011

(… continued)

So, I believe your question to be: Why aren’t unemployment insurance recipients and welfare recipients the same, and further, why aren’t the government checks they receive handouts in both these instances?

1. Differences between unemployment and welfare. (This is based on my layman’s understanding of the issues. If there are any policy experts out there, please feel free to correct me.)

Unemployment recipients are required to have worked in the past (paid into unemployment insurance), must be able to work currently, and must be looking for a job. These requirements do not necessarily apply to welfare recipients. If you are a welfare recipient, you are not required to have previously worked (i.e., paid into welfare insurance), and are not necessarily required to be able to work currently. There are no income/asset limits placed on unemployment insurance, while there are for those on welfare insurance.

2. Unemployment insurance is an insurance program similar to auto insurance. You pay into it while you are working. If you become unemployed, you get some of your money back to help you pay your bills while you’re looking for a job. (In auto insurance, you get some of your money back if you get into a car accident to help you pay for repairs or a new car.) Since you pay into unemployment insurance, and since you get some of your money back in the case of unemployment, the label “handout” doesn’t seem applicable.

[Treasonous1]

09:10 PM on 03/30/2011

1) I'm admittedly not an expert in this field either but I though welfare recipients were also required to look for a job and/or work IF they are able to, even if they have not previously done so, in order to keep reciving checks. Now you still seem to have avoided saying whether or not welfare chacks are a handout, which then also ties in with my questions regarding UI, which I adressed in the reply to efmo.

2)http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Treasonous1/michigan-first-state-to-curtail-jobless-aid-congress_n_841432_82649081.html

[caroline25]

09:37 AM on 03/30/2011

There is a woman on this site that speaks very poorly of the 99ers and the added extended weeks. I have tried to find her because I want to tell her how cold hearted she is. She's lucky I haven't been able to. She is a person that you can't reason with. Nothing we say will stop here from the put downs. I see her as a troll on this site only there to cause conflict and get attention.
Somethng has to be done to bring America back the way it was. We deserve it as we built the history of our Country. We can't let anyone discourage us, especially the Government. When it is time for our vote to change things, we have to make it our obligation to get it done for the benefit of all of us. God help us.

[spinotter11]

03:59 AM on 03/31/2011

People have different opinions about almost every subject on earth, and that woman has a right to her opinion if she truly believes in it. But as you know there are numerous posters on the subject of unemployment who seem to take sheer pleasure out of taunting those without jobs. Just ignore people like that and they lose steam.

[Independent66]

08:33 AM on 03/30/2011

I lived in MI from 1960 to 1982! I came to Michigan for an education, married, had 3 children, had a great job, but by 1982 I could see MI falling off a cliff. The auto industry was in trouble, there was high interest levels and inflation. My wife and I decided we needed to leave our home. She never lived any place else. I found a job in NJ, we sold our home, left our friends, and cried the day we left MI. Looking back it was clearly the right decision for our family. Now almost 30 years later, we are retired in TX, we have 3 grand boys, our 2 daughters married in TX and our son is working in NJ for a TX company and plans to return in the next 6 months.
We go back to see friends, and my wife wants a summer home on a big lake in MI. We will probably do that, but it is so sad to see the mess MI is in. I can only hope the new Governor has a plan to make MI vibrant again. It may take 50 years to do, too late for me to see the results, but we will do what we can to help our home state.

[RickInMichigan]

02:30 PM on 03/30/2011

How much debt does Texas have? $20 something billion?

[Independent66]

05:35 PM on 03/30/2011

None! They have lots of cash in all kinds of buckets. They have a forecasted budget shortfall of $27B over 2 years. Roughly $13.5B next year. The state government is contemplating what to do. What I hear is they will layoff 150k government workers to partially close the gap. Roughly 50k teachers, 50k teaching support and 50k bureaucrats. There will be some fee increases, but no income tax, perhaps a very small sales tax increase.
That ought to do it and they would still have $7b in their rainy day fund.
The other piece of good news is the growth in the economy in the state will absorb these folks within 1 year and we will still need to import folks to come to TX.

[Jmaximus Spartacus]

04:09 AM on 03/30/2011

Not sure what the people who voted for this guy expected? We had a choice between a real Democrat [unlike the fake one in the whitehouse] and guy who got rich sending jobs to China. How many times do people in this country have to get sucker punched before they learn? I would move to another state or Canada except I would have to give my house away and declared bankruptcy to cover the loss.

[Independent66]

09:01 AM on 03/30/2011

Who was in power in MI for the last 30 years or so? Why is the state in such a mess? Read my post above for my story. We were both lucky and smart to leave in 1982. We are now contemplating returning. Maybe you will wake up and understand what caused the mess in MI.

[RickInMichigan]

05:47 PM on 03/30/2011

You're from Michigan but you don't understand the incredible downsizing of the auto industry that's gone on here? By the way, both Dems and Repubs have been in power.

[rahrens 1]

04:31 PM on 03/29/2011

Soon they'll have the funds to reverse this when all revenue comes from the Feds http://goldandsilverlinings.com/?p=378

[Jmaximus Spartacus]

04:09 AM on 03/30/2011

Spam.

[Mister Grumpy]

02:30 PM on 03/29/2011

While people complain about the high unemployment they still shop at Walmart...... the #1 importer of foreign made goods..........

[jmdziuban1]

05:46 AM on 03/30/2011

They saved $10on a lawn chair,but the lawn chair is designed to break. This means they will have to replace it sooner, and thus they "saved" nothing. In the long term they lose on the deal. Meanwhile, another job disappears.

[b525]

02:04 PM on 03/29/2011

Much of the current federal and state debt in the U.S. is caused by our $1 TRILLION dollar per year trade deficit.

Approximately 1/2 of this yearly trade deficit is caused by IMPORTING FOREIGN OIL into the U.S. each year. (around $500 billion dollars per year).

Slashing social welfare spending/education spending will NOT solve this repeating yearly FOREIGN OIL TRADE DEFICIT.

This yearly $500 billion dollar foreign oil trade deficit equals $10 BILLION dollars per state, PER YEAR.

This oil trade deficit increases year by year as the price of oil goes up. This deficit translates into NATIONAL DEBT from year to year. (it does not simply disappear, regardless of accounting tricks).

[kellygreen]

02:32 PM on 03/29/2011

That's only part of the problem.

The biggest part of the problem is that the top 2% of society and corporations are ridiculously under-taxed in proportion to the government services and social safety net that we desire as a country.

You cannot have a robust social safety net...and adequately fund it with a regressive tax system. Where those at the top of society---in many cases---pay LESS in taxes (percentage-wise) than those at the bottom.

[Billyguitar]

11:50 AM on 03/30/2011

We have a revenue problem, not a spending problem. Raise the taxes.

[annarkey]

01:51 PM on 03/29/2011

A COMMON STORY

As his colleagues began losing their jobs at a major manufacturing plant, Joe was unconcerned because he had 13 years of experience, had led many projects, with many contacts, a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering, and was only 45 years old. He was a naturalized citizen from Sri Lanka, a minority. When his job was lost, he found some truths; his contacts were looking for new positions, plants were not hiring, his experience and degree were not unusual, and at 45 years old he was competing with 20 somethings with lower salaries.

His wife, Mary, found employment as a teacher assistant, for the insurance, in a charter school although she was an experienced manager with her Master's degree in human relations. Joe was humiliated to file for unemployment but needed the $600 per month and he kept his unemployment a secret.

Joe found a consultant job in Dallas, TX and left his family for over one year, occasionally flying home to be with his family. He had provided a nice home in a good school district for his family; but, as property values dropped (not his mortgage payment) selling was impossible and where would his family move? Mary was alone in dealing with everything and the home was not well maintained. She began having panic attacks and now is taking prescription medicine.

Joe finally found employment in MI; but at half the salary, with more responsibility and with a long drive.

HE STILL VOTED FOR RICK SNYDER!!!

[Mister Grumpy]

02:27 PM on 03/29/2011

And he deserves what ever comes his way.............

[tjdumas]

08:40 PM on 03/29/2011

AND MORE! Sorry A*S! dummbf*ck (guy in the story)

[lostinseganet]

04:01 PM on 03/29/2011

O-o :( !