House passes unemployment insurance fix to reduce the debt | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

    HB 4 passed the N. C. House Monday (2-5-13) night. The bill is entitled Unemployment Insurance Fund Solvency & Program Changes. Essentially what it does is reduce the amount of weekly unemployment benefits for those who go on unemployment in the future, but not those currently drawing it, and reduces the number of weeks a person can draw benefits.

    The vote in the House was 77 ayes and 42 noes with one absent (McElraft). In a rare move the Speaker voted aye on the measure. He seldom votes on bills.

    The vote was very partisan, but three Democrats voted with the Republican majority, and Rep. Paul Tine (D-6), who represents Beaufort County, voted for the bill with the Republican majority. Two Republicans (Hastings and Wells) voted no.

    The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration, where it is expected to pass easily. Governor McCrory supports the bill.

    The proponents say that reducing benefits and raising employer fees is necessary to pay off the debt that the Easley and Perdue administrations ran up in paying benefits when there was not enough money in the fund to cover those benefits. The Employment Security Commission has also been plagued with management problems for several years and that added to the problem.

    An explanation of the bill, from the Republican perspective can be read by clicking here.

    During the debate on the House floor Rep. Jean Farmer-Butterfield made an impassioned plea that included a prediction in which she said that the bill would: "... increase homelessness, domestic violence, alcohol and substance abuse, the need for counseling and indeed to cause more suicides and mass killings," Farmer-Butterfield said on the floor. "I urge you to protect these unemployed benefit funds by delaying the implementation of this bill."

    Commentary

    We would have voted for HB 4 but we aren't sure that it is the best we can do. In tough economic times unemployment compensation is one of the "safety nets" we believe all of us should support, regardless of partisan politics or political persuasion. When a business shuts down it is a devastating experience for the workers who are out of a job through no fault of their own. It can be a traumatic experience for a family which has only one breadwinner. Unemployment compensation is essential and the right thing for government to do.

    But the problem comes when unemployment benefits become a disincentive to find another job. All too often we have people who simply choose to draw unemployment and other social services benefits and don't really look for another job or busy themselves getting retrained.

    So we think the debate that focuses on the cap to be put on unemployment compensation misses the mark. We think it should be based on declining scale that "weans" the person off public assistance over time rather than continuing to extend the benefits on and on like the Obama administration has done.

    And we think more emphasis should be put on monitoring how conscientious the beneficiaries are in seeking employment, even to the point of having them work in public works projects or compulsory retraining courses after a month or so of allowing them to search for jobs on their own.

    And we believe it was a shameful debacle for former governors Easley and Perdue to allow this debt to accumulate as they did. This problem should have been tackled long before now.

    While we would have voted for HB 4 we would hope that the Legislature and Governor will continue to monitor this program much more carefully than has been done in recent years. We need to help people who are laid off and earnestly looking for work but we need to be very careful that unemployment compensation does not result in people choosing to be paid not to work.