North Carolina First State To Eliminate Federal Unemployment Benefits

[cali]

The North Carolina General Assembly recently decided to implement cuts to unemployment benefits as well as the maximum number of weeks one can receive unemployment funds. But altering unemployment benefits before the end of 2013 means North Carolina has been disqualified from receiving federal unemployment funding.

This makes North Carolina the first state in the nation to be denied federal unemployment benefits. Today on The State of Things, host Frank Stasio talks with Laura Leslie, the capitol bureau chief for WRAL; Mitch Kokai, the director of communications at the John Locke Foundation; and Bill Rowe, the general counsel and director of advocacy at the North Carolina Justice Center.

http://wunc.org/post/north-carolina-first-state-eliminate-federal-unemployment-benefits

North Carolina Businesses Force Benefits Cuts for the People They Won't Hire

On July 1, 70,000 people in North Carolina will lose federal long-term unemployment benefits after the state's legislature passed a bill that drops its residents out of the program. The legislature did this in part to avoid increased business taxes stemming from the debt it owes the federal government — debt incurred thanks to the state's endemic unemployment.
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Over the course of the economic downturn, unemployment in the state has consistently been higher than that of the country on the whole. The graph at right (which uses data from the Federal Reserve) shows unemployment rates for both; North Carolina is in blue. In May, the state had the country's fifth-worst unemployment rate.

Over the course of the recession, the state has racked up a bill of over $2.1 billion to the government, according to the Raleigh News and Observer — money used to help cover the cost of state unemployment benefits. In February, state legislators voted to increase unemployment taxes on businesses and cut benefits for recipients starting July 1. By reducing those benefits, the state breaks a condition of receiving support for the long-term unemployed from the federal government.

In North Carolina, that means 70,000 people will lose that long-term support. As will the state economy, as the News and Observer reports:

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http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/06/north-carolinas-unemployment-benefits/66699/

[sinkingfeeling]

1. North Carolina in full flight back to 1858.

[hollysmom]

2. one more red state off the federal Teat

Who else can we talk into self destructing?

If republicans win the next election, they will have to check for voter fraud.

[G_j]

3. Senate unveiled their version of a massive tax cut for the wealthy the same day

http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2013/07/02/immoral-monday/

Senate leaders unveiled their latest version of a massive tax cut for the wealthy Monday, the same day federal emergency unemployment benefits were cut off to 70,000 laid off workers simply because legislative leaders and Governor Pat McCrory stubbornly refused to change the effective date of cuts to state unemployment benefits they approved earlier in the year.

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Legislative leaders seemed determined to give wealthy people a big tax cut and pay for it by making middle class families pay more and slashing funding for public schools and higher education.

That doesn’t make any sense to most people in North Carolina. And they especially don’t understand how lawmakers can give corporations and millionaires huge tax breaks while at the same denying emergency unemployment benefits to 70,000 laid off workers desperately trying to make ends meet for their families.

That’s a big reason why thousands of folks are marching on the Legislative Building every week on Moral Mondays and why they were back in force this week, because of the immorality of the decisions being made in the legislative halls by the folks who are supposed to be representing everybody in North Carolina, millionaires, middle class families and laid off workers alike.

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