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Legislature Set to Approve Unemployment Extension By Erin Toner

July 12, 2011 | W UW M | Milwauk ee, W I Share / Em ail Print Download

Wisconsin State Capitol

The Legislature is set to pass a bill next w eek that w ould give thousands of laid-off W isconsin w orkers an additional 13 w eeks of federal unemployment benefits. Senate and Assembly committees approved the legislation Monday. As W UW Ms Erin Toner reports, the extended benefits w ould stretch the safety net for people w hove already received unemployment checks for more than a year. The bills sponsor, Republican Sen. Van Wanggaard, w ants to make it clear, the extended unemployment benefits are 100 percent federally funded. So they w ould not add to the states staggering debt for regular unemployment insurance. W isconsin ow es the federal government $1.3 billion for covering jobless benefits for state residents. Wanggaard says now is not the time to address that major financial problem, but rather time to help people w hove been looking for w ork for a long time. This bill and this hearing should serve as a catalyst for those W isconsinites w ho are unemployed, to redouble their efforts to find w ork. We cannot and w e should not expect further bailouts and extensions, Wanggaard says. The federal government is picking up the cost of the extended benefits as part tax relief legislation Congress approved in December. The 13-w eek extension w ould apply to people w ho have been out of w ork about a year-and-a-half, and have exhausted all other state and federal unemployment compensation. The Department of Workforce Development estimates as many as 40,000 jobless W isconsinites are eligible. One of them is Wendy Zetting. Im a lifelong resident of W isconsin and a homeow ner in the city of Milw aukee, Zetting says. Zetting testified at a public hearing on the legislation Monday. She says she lost her job as a Midw est flight attendant in December 2009, and her jobless benefits allow ed her to pay her bills and pursue a dietetics degree at MATC. But, Zetting says she got a letter last w eek saying her benefits had expired. W ithout unemployment benefits, I cant make ends meet w hile Im attending school. I could graduate, make a good living, and be a productive taxpayer again. But I need these benefits to make it happen, Zetting says.
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A few people questioned w hy its taken w eeks for law makers to consider the extension. Rose W right of Milw aukee w orked as a certified nursing assistant for 17 years, then as a janitor for five before being laid off. She said her unemployment benefits ran out months ago, and since then, shes been evicted from her apartment because she could not pay the rent. I dont have money to buy food. To put food on my table. I dont have no w here to go. I dont understand w hy this happened, W right says. James Buchen responded to those w ho asked w hy law makers are taking up the bill now , w hen they could have acted back in April, w hen many people lost their benefits. Buchen is a lobbyist for the business group W isconsin Manufacturers and Commerce. Hes also member of the states Unemployment Insurance Advisory Council. It makes recommendations on such matters to the Legislature. Buchen says the council has been pondering concerns the business community raised. They w ere often confronting a situation w here they w ere offering jobs to people w ho w ere turning them dow n saying I w ant to continue on my unemployment benefits rather than take a job. And so many people w ere offering the opinion, havent w e run the course w ith these extended benefit programs? Buchen says. The Department of Workforce Development reports very few reasons w hy an unemployed person could reject a job offer. They include, that the job w ould pay considerably less than their former position. Spokesw oman Georgia Maxw ell says the problem is - a person receiving benefits probably is not going to tell the state they turned dow n a decent job. Now if that employer w ere to contact us here at the department, w e w ould look into that and then w e could look into that individual case and then those claims could be denied for that w eek because that is not how the system is intended to w ork, Maxw ell says. The department maintains a w ebsite called Job Center of W isconsin.com. Maxw ell says as of last Friday, there w ere 30,000 jobs listed. She says later this fall, the agency w ill begin collecting more information about people on the unemployment rolls in hopes of matching their skills w ith the needs of employers.
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