So, (some of) the Arizona Legislature shows up and catches a paycheck today, but no actual work gets done? Why would we want an additional $3 million a week in federal money (at no cost to the state) anyhow? I forgot: it’s because people living off their contest winnings like Andy Biggs (“If we really cared about the unemployed … we would entice jobs here,” feel like $240 a week is discouraging people from looking for work. If you don’t want the benefits to be extended, have the guts to take a vote and register your dissent. Tell people to find one of these imaginary jobs that are apparently floating around.
From Ted Prezelski from Rum, Romanism and Rebellion:
Those of you that have come here looking for a report on the special session, here it what I have:
Nothing. Zip. Zilch.
And to honor the breadth of my heritage: Nada. Ni.
Oh, it’s not because I don’t have any information. It’s because despite calling a special session, there was no bill ready to work on. So, aside from honoring the ASU softball team, the legislature had no business before them.
To sum up: not only did the governor not have any votes lined up, she didn’t even have a bill to line up votes for.
This change, which people have been calling for since April involves a single word in state law. Amending “two” to become “three” so that 15,000 Arizonans would be eligible for continued unemployment benefits. Apparently, this was too difficult to accomplish.
By the way, the legislators that were there all collected their per diem.
This article appears in Jun 9-15, 2011.
Governor, we don’t have a competent one, let alone the legislators. They are all useless, do nothing, but collect pay, travel and health benefits. They have no other desires.
There is something you haven’t thought about. Getting Federal money to pay state unemployment benefits is not without strings. When a state draws on Federal funds to extend unemployment benefits the Feds increase the portion of payroll taxes employers pay. The more a state borrows from the Feds to fund unemployment compensation, the more expensive it gets to hire the unemployed. Politicians are in a terrible fix because they have only two choices, and neither will be popular – extend unemployment benefits discouraging new hiring and reap the economic consequences, or do not extend unemployment benefits and hope hiring increases. No matter what they do no jobs are generated. No matter what they do a large portion of their constituency will be very upset.