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House votes to unravel
unemployment insurance agreement
A bill that would repeal
the negotiated agreement on the state’s unemployment insurance system
passed the House of Representatives today, 56-41. Rep. Richard DeBolt,
R-Chehalis, and
Rep. Gary
Alexander, R-Olympia, say House Bill 2255
would undo a decade of work by labor and business groups and unravel a
major piece of the package adopted in 2003 to correct the state’s
economic climate.
“It’s a bad April Fools
joke on the employers in our state. Two years ago, we worked in a
bipartisan fashion to create an unemployment insurance system that
provides fair and sustainable benefits for workers in a way that is
equitable to all employers. We were trying to bring jobs to our state
and this was part of our economic development policy,” DeBolt said.
“This agreement has been in place only three months and now we have a
new economic development policy. The new policy is, we will tell you
what you want to hear, and then we’ll yank our agreements out from under
you.
“My goal is not to deliver unemployment checks to my constituents, it’s
to deliver jobs,” he said. “I hope they’re never unemployed but the
system we have in place now provides a safety net. What we really need
are policies to put people in the timber industry and other struggling
industries back to work. That’s what will solve our unemployment
problems – not this bill.”
DeBolt is prime sponsor of
House Bill 1103, which would provide tax incentives for timber mill
operators who hire Washington workers to harvest, haul and process
timber. DeBolt said lawmakers should be more focused on efforts such as
this to keep workers employed. HB 1103 is stalled in the House Finance
Committee.
Alexander sees HB 2255 not only as a breach of the trust that produced
the unemployment insurance reforms two years ago, but as an obstacle to
creating jobs in the long run.
“What our workers need are
more opportunities for fulltime jobs, with the full benefits they bring.
A bigger unemployment check will never take the place of fulltime work,
but making that check bigger, as this bill would do, will raise costs
for employers and make it more difficult for them to survive, much less
add jobs,” Alexander said.
The 20th District
lawmakers warned that the changes proposed in House Bill 2255 will
create winners and losers among workers who deserve equal benefits.
Under the plan proposed by House Democrats, a fulltime mill worker
making $35,000 a year who is laid off would receive $350 a week in
unemployment benefits. A seasonal worker who works six months a year and
makes $35,000 would receive $496 a week in benefits.
“This bill penalizes
people who are laid off from permanent employment. Furthermore, it makes
the unemployment insurance fund unsustainable, and will lead to benefit
cuts or tax increases down the road,” DeBolt said.
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For more information, contact:
Brendon Wold, Public
Information Officer: (360) 786-7698
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