Mich. should extend unemployment benefits
(Last updated: 06/24/09 7:19pm)Before the end of the year, almost 90,000 unemployed workers in Michigan will have dried out their unemployment benefits. The state, which boasts the nation’s highest unemployment rate at 14.1 percent, is struggling to find short-term answers to the state’s larger problems. There’s currently a bill sitting in the Michigan Senate that could do just that.
The bill, which was passed in May by the state House of Representatives, would continue giving benefits to unemployed workers who are undergoing work training programs. Part-time workers who were laid off, who normally don’t receive benefits, might also see government funding come their way.
Michigan received $138 million from the stimulus package to extend government benefits, which would have the state covered until 2011. Even though the state is in cost-cutting mode, it’s best to keep the unemployment benefits going. At least it’s not totally on our dime.
Unemployment benefits are typically good as immediate help for workers struggling to find work, but doesn’t help them much in the long term. The sudden loss of paychecks can further damage a state’s economy, which in turn can lead to more layoffs. Without the temporary assistance of unemployment, Michigan would be in a far worse situation.
The state needs to make sure workers in training complete their education, because an economy is as good as its workers. The state should try and protect any people trying to be more effective in the job market. Since they can afford do to it, Michigan should continue paying benefits and hope the economy perks up by 2011.
But that’s not to say the unemployment system still doesn’t need changes.
Thirty-four percent of unemployed workers in the state, or 232,000 workers, are not eligible for any funding due to program rules. People can be excluded from acquiring benefits for things such as being a part-time worker, even though many part-time workers log up to 40 hours a week. They receive little help from the government even though they’re in as equally poor situations as full-time workers.
One could argue that full-time workers should receive benefits simply because they’ve earned it more, which is legitimate. Unfortunately, many part-time workers are not working partial hours because of a lack of skill; they’re doing it because it’s almost impossible to find full-time work. Unemployment is designed to help pay for the cost of finding a job and part-time employees should get some of that assistance as well. Maybe they should not receive the full compensation that full-time workers receive, but there should be some form of assistance to this large pool of workers. This terrible economy hurts both groups.
When those 90,000 workers’ checks run out, Michigan will just have another economic problem to deal with. There will be other ways to assist them when the time comes. But for now, Michigan needs to protect workers trying to improve their skill sets as well as expand at least partial protection of part-time workers.
Originally Published: 06/24/09 7:19pm
Todd
06/24/09 9:03pmBeing that East Lansing is so close to Lansing, it wouldn’t stretch the imagination to think the State News would have a reporter who actually covers the Legislature and might understand the issues, so that maybe the editorial board could consult said reporter before writing an editorial that involves legislation. You know, just to get the facts straight and provide acurate information.
The bill to which you refer that would give Michigan an additional $138 million of pork to extend unemployment benefits comes with strings.
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DJJ
06/24/09 10:28pmI didn’t even read this garbage, I only had to read the title. Hey, financially illiterate editorial board, if you hadn’t heard State of Michigan has a $1.3 billion hole to plug. It’s not exactly California’s $24 billion hole or New York State’s $10+ billion hole, but it’s still a pain in the arse.
We need to recall all the socialists in Lansing who made Faustian bargains with the UAW. Pension funds in Michigan are going to tank because they hold unsecured bonds with the autos, whom just got ramrodded by the UAW democratic mafia.
Grandma Taters
06/25/09 8:23amFirst of all, great post Todd! Always nice to have someone supplement the SN driple with some facts.
Second, “The state needs to make sure workers in training complete their education, because an economy is as good as its workers. The state should try and protect any people trying to be more effective in the job market. Since they can afford do to it, Michigan should continue paying benefits and hope the economy perks up by 2011.” How does this go with the SN editorial yesterday “Scholarship cuts unfortunate, necessary”? If the “economy is as good as its workers” shouldn’t we keep all the college scholarships we can?
Zeke
06/25/09 9:06amThe state will certainly need the benefits once scholarships to intelligent and hardworking students are cut, as you advocated yesterday.
Juan
06/25/09 9:30amDid y’all miss the memo? The state has no money. Businesses are going belly up. Taxing employers, both the successful and the struggling, is not going to make doing business here any more attractive. Businesses will close down, and more folks will be…drumroll…unemployed!
These are undoubtedly tough times, but the answer is not to tax more and spend more. It is, like it or not, to cut back to the absolute bare minimum until things improve.
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MICHIGAN IS BANKRUPT
06/25/09 10:32amFACTS
1. Unemployment is not “earned,” per se. EMPLOYERS pay for it — not workers.
2. MICHIGAN’s UI account is BANKRUPT — businesses will be paying the UI debt for years.
3. NO BUSINESSPERSON with a brain would come to a state that is so ANTI-business.
4. MESSIAH screwed up — you take his plan, you buy it for years. That is why there is so much resistance. ANOTHER OBAMA LIE/LIE/LIE.
Sick. Just sick. No jobs from this COMMIE-CRAT mess.
DJJ
06/25/09 11:25amWell, our military dictatorship will accelerate, that’s good news, we don’t have to anxiously wait around as much. When there is a massive number of unemployed, foreclosed (homeless) people with no savings, you’re going to start hearing about murders being a common occurrence. You won’t read it or see it in the news however because our press has lost all integrity. At this point, Obama finally brings out troops from Iraq home to crack down on the unruly citizens with an iron fist.
Tim
06/25/09 2:20pmDJJ
If we aren’t going to see or read about these common place murders in the news, how exactly do we come to hear about them? And if we already know about them, what is the motivation for the press to cover them up and why do we care if they attempt to cover them up? Your tin foil hat appears to be a bit too tight.
DJJ
06/25/09 5:06pmWord of mouth, friends of friends of friends, you’ll eventually hear about younger people dying off. Murder suicides are starting to be talked about more. The press won’t report dire situations so that people don’t panic and make runs on the banks and loot the commercial districts. Speaking of tin foil hats, search Google Patents Beta, you’ll find patents held by the military for psychological alteration using electromagnetic waves.
Sparty
06/26/09 11:42am“The state will certainly need the benefits once scholarships to intelligent and hardworking students are cut, as you advocated yesterday.”
If the editorial wasn’t so outrageous, that’d be pretty funny! At least our MSU Student Newspaper is standing up for us MSU students…oh, wait…
Todd’s point about how maybe it’d be a good idea for the State News to have a reporter go to the capital…thatd make too much sense. After all, the State News Editorial Board is the same group that mistook Natural Gas for Gasoline and wrote an entire editorial about it.
Sparty
06/26/09 11:47amhttp://statenews.com/index.php/article/2009/01/look_to_power_plant_to_save_energy_on_campus
PowerPlan burns “Gasoline”. lol
Bob
06/26/09 11:49ami think its supposed to be save_energy_on_campus
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