Eric Bradner continues his excellent reporting on legislative efforts to deal with the insolvent unemployment insurance fund. The fund is currently borrowing huge gobs of cash from the federal government, undermining the mythology of a certain federal government disdaining, budget balancing Governor. I hasten to add that the UI fund’s financial problems are not of the Governor’s making; but they also sure are not anything he’s done much to solve.
See some background here and here. In 2009, the Democratic House and the Republican Senate passed a compromise measure that raised taxes on business and cut benefits to the unemployed. In 2010, the General Assembly voted to stall implementation of that compromise. And, this year, with the political landscape changed to give the G.O.P. firm control of Indiana government, a bill is moving forward that will increase the burden on workers receiving money from the unemployment fund and decrease it (though not entirely) on business.
“I hasten to add that the UI fund ’s financial problems are not of the Governor’s making; but they also sure are not anything he’s done much to solve.”
The last part of your sentence was correct, Doug, but the first part was DEAD WRONG and is a part of the fabrication the Governor and his Department of Workforce Development have been telling of late. DWD runs one of the worst unemployment programs in the country, and this is based on statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor and not just me talking. Since 2005, DWD has played a massive part in ensuring the Unemployment Trust Fund went bankrupt and also now owes the federal government over $2 BILLION.
According to the Department of Labor, from 2006-2009 (the most recent figures), Indiana OVERPAID claimants (who were not eligible, by law, to collect UI benefits), $1.159 BILLION, which was the 3rd-worst state total in the country after California and Illinois. Of that amount, Indiana’s (and Mitch Daniels’) DWD OVERPAID claimants $859 MILLION, which is around 3/4th of the total overpayment; this amount was BY FAR the worst in the country by hundreds of millions of dollars.
The “Leadership Team” of DWD, which now consists of 8 people earning over $85,000 per year (3 people used to run DWD less than 10 years ago), keeps saying the main reason for the Trust Fund debt is a “structural imbalance”, but as you can see, they are much in fault themselves. The Commissioner, Mark Everson (who was Daniels’ #2 at the OMB), said DWD would’ve caused a riot if they had denied all the claimants who were not entitled to benefits. The problem is, these claimants were not doing what is required by law to earn UI benefits — they were not registered with the state’s unemployment services (to help them get work), and they were not actually looking for work, either. When that happens, they are on unemployment longer, necessitating extensions in benefits.
DWD has failed claimants in making sure they are seeking and finding work, while simultaneously failing businesses who are PAYING for that unemployment. They are also failing any Hoosier taxpayer, as we are also paying for UI benefits for claimants who are not legally supposed to get them. Because most state and local governments, as well as libraries and public school systems, pay up to 100% of a claimant’s benefits directly (and not from the UI Trust Fund), any DWD misstep in over-paying an undeserving claimant results in the money essentially coming from us.
Also, Indiana DWD’s “Adjudication Centers” (Indianapolis and Fort Wayne) have consistently been the worst of states in adjudicating claims the last few years; in the 3rd Quarter 2010 (the last one audited), Indiana was the worst of 53 states and territories by only getting a random-sample of 29 of 100 correct. The quarter before saw Indiana getting 25 of 100 correct. In fact, Indiana’s DWD has not reached the Department of Labor’s 75% “passing” threshold for both types of decisions (called “Separations” and “NonSeparations”) since 2005.
So if you are an unemployed Hoosier or a Hoosier business, you have every reason to worry if your initial decision will be correct since DWD typically gets only 1/4 of the decisions right the first time. You also have every reason to worry when DWD obviously and blatantly is incompetent in its duty to ensure the people who are, by law, entitled to UI benefits are paid them – and those who are not entitled to benefits does not get them.
Mitch Daniels and his Department of Workforce Development have failed Indiana in almost every way imaginable by setting our unemployment system back a decade (oh and there’s SO much more I could tell, from cronyism and nepotism to fraud and outright breaking the law), but you better believe his silver and fork-tongued spokespeople will keep this information secret so as to not ruin the nearly-beatified image of him as a supposed “fiscal” governor.
I was collecting UI in Ohio and worked stop-gap jobs here in Indiana, while looking for full-time work (in Ohio I might add). I had to place a UI claim in Indiana to see if I could collect Indiana UI before going back to Ohio. Indiana says that I am eligible; however, I am a nervous wreck having to possibly collect in Indiana knowing how messed up the system is; not to mention it is so slow. I actually sent an Email to the DWD questioning how they had written the income amount and employer on the claim statement. I have never seen a paper like that before, and it worried me right away because it kind of looked like something someone would do to CYA. There was even a disclaimer on it stating that we the claimant should check for accuracy. Isn’t that their job? How are we supposed to know where there information comes from? Things are bad enough without having to worry about the incompetent Indiana DWD.