A little less talk and a lot more action on jobless benefits, governor

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Tick tock, governor. Time is of the essense — you only have until the end of this week to forestall emergency unemployment insurance benefits being disrupted late next month. Or terminated, if the Arizona Tea-Publican legislature fails to act in a special session.

Governor Jan Brewer says she wants a special session to prevent the loss of those benefits. But that requires consent of Republican legislative leaders, who have yet to agree to the plan. Yeah, that's called leadership, governor; demonstate some. Brewer touts benefit of extended jobless aid:

Brewer last week defended her call on lawmakers to alter state laws so that about 15,000 long-term unemployed will be able to continue collecting unemployment benefits. The money – about $3.5 million a week – would come out of the federal budget.

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[Brewer] said the state's extended high unemployment rate has left many Arizonans hurting.

"We know that we have lots of people here in Arizona that are depending on those dollars to put food on the table for their families," she said.

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The governor said it's not as though Arizona, in changing the law to keep the jobless benefits flowing, would be seeking special treatment.

"Several other states have already adopted it so that they will be getting those dollars," Brewer said. So, from the governor's perspective, it makes no sense to say "no" to the money.

"Yes, we could be cutting off our nose and not take those dollars to benefit Arizona," she said. "Bringing in $3 million to $4 million a week into the economy is going to benefit everyone."

The change in state law Brewer wants will determine whether Arizonans who have exhausted their 26 weeks of state jobless benefits and 53 weeks of federal emergency benefits remain eligible for an extra 20 weeks. Without the change, officials from the state Department of Economic Security say the checks for those out of work more than 79 weeks will stop sometime next month.

Even The Arizona Republic agreed in an opinion on Sunday Simple fix will protect lifeline for jobless:

More than 15,000 Arizonans are going to lose their unemployment benefits unless legislators act. All they need to do is change a single word in state law.

All they need is a quick in-and-out special session. Gov. Jan Brewer is receptive to calling one and is sounding out lawmakers. They should agree.

It's not like the state has to spend a penny to continue extended [unemployment] benefits.

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Workers in the states hardest hit by the economic downturn can get an extra 20 weeks of federally funded help. These are people who haven't had work for more than a year and a half.

Unfortunately, Arizona has been in such bad shape for so long that the eligibility formula is skewed. Legislators need to tweak it: Do calculations based on the last three years instead of two.

Nothing could be easier. So what's the hang-up?

Some legislators argue that unemployment benefits discourage workers from looking for jobs. Really? The maximum is $240 a week, nearly 20 percent less than working at minimum wage.

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Times are too hard to cut off this lifeline.

And it makes no economic sense for Arizona. Extended unemployment pumps about $3.3 million a week into the state. That money goes right into the economy, paying for basics like groceries and gas.

Lawmakers should not let one word cause so much pain.

As I said before, This one word amendment does not cost the state of Arizona any money. This is federal funds flowing into the state to boost our economy. The vote should be unanimous. Only an ideological extremist with a sick hatred for the unemployed could vote against this no-brainer.