North Carolina Restores Extended Benefits

First topic message reminder :

I did a search and I couldn't find this posted anywhere so I made a new thread.

I went to print out some more work search forms today and I saw a notice on the Unemployment commission website saying that due to the decline in the unemployment rate that North Carolina no longer qualifies for extended benefits. The last week payable will be 4/16.

The unemployment rate went down from 9.8% to 9.7%. It has never been below 9.5% which I thought was the cut off rate. Something seems wrong here.

Does anyone else have any more information?

NC Democrats seek to pressure GOP on unemployment

To understand this, there is the standalone bill and then the budget and EB together? Perude vetoed the budget and EB. So the standalone what happens with that now? This is the last check this weekend for us.

Yes you are correct. The bill that passed had a budget clause attached.
Perdue said she would veto but it doesn't look like that has happened yet. There is a senate and a house bill that are standalone but I would be surprised if the republicans let it go as is.

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Forced by Republican legislators to choose between halting unemployment benefits for about 37,000 people and accepting a double-digit budget cut, Gov. Beverly Perdue has vetoed legislation that would have kept checks flowing.

Perdue's announcement came at the end of a chaotic Saturday, following the deaths of at least 16 people in a rash of tornadoes that swept through the state. The Democratic governor issued the veto close to midnight after she declared a state of emergency and held a news conference about the storms.

Read more: http://www.thesunnews.com/2011/04/17/2106873/nc-gov-perdue-vetoes-jobless-benefits.html#ixzz1JnEFpNcG

Off topic here, but to everyone in NC, I am sorry to hear about the loss of lives last night. Praying for everyone affected by these storms.

what a crock...i can't blame them for taking that deal though. they should enact a law that says b.s. daisey chaining of bills is not allowed. Every single thing any state or our national legislature manages to get passed has to be full of all kinds of concessions and extra garbage.

so what happens for us now? Is there any chance this week they will do something?

There are still two bills available. One is a senate bill and one is a house bill. Both are in committee. The one she vetoed was a new bill that had that ridiculous budget clause attached.

I can't blame her for vetoing it because the republican budget will devastate this state. I don't think our state can handle the laying off of 21,000 more teachers and that's just one of the super cuts that will be passed.

We need to start writing the republican members of the senate and house and tell them that we don't want this piggybacked on their job killing budget bill.

This is a kind of interesting little comment.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20110417/pl_ac/8310229_republicans_champion_the_no_work_no_eat_philosophy_despite_lack_of_jobs_1

Is there any news about if they are going to vote on the standalone bill. I have not seen anything.

There is a major rally and press conference today at the General Assembly in Raleigh.


http://www.unemployed-friends2.org/t1823-nc-unemployed-workers-to-speak-at-tuesday-press-conference-outside-general-assembly

There was an article in the Huffington Post yesterday about the EB issues in NC. It was updated later in the day to include this statement from the state's House Minority Leader:

North Carolina House Minority Leader Joe Hackney (D) said there wasn’t much the minority party could do to reauthorize the benefits without GOP help. He said he’s heard from constituents worried about the end of Extended Benefits. “I don’t think anybody’s greatly affected as of today, but within a week or two there will be a lot of people affected,” Hackney said. “I think it’s unfortunate and I think it’s inappropriate to attach something unrelated to the bill.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/18/nc-gov-vetoes-unemployment-bill_n_850501.html

I used to be a NC teacher, there was a huge advertising campaign here for people to go back to school and teach-"we need you blah blah blah" Now that I have my license and want to teach-and 4 years expenerience-they started laying all the teachers off-and NOT just the bad ones like the media likes to say- the ones with experience (even just 4 years) cost more than new ones and Yes they even have teachers here on work visa from the phillipines (I've personally seen it) taking jobs!! So Governor Perdue is trying to save education but the republicans have given her a catch-22- agree to our cuts or lose unemployment-what's the woman to do??

americatheneedy wrote:I used to be a NC teacher, there was a huge advertising campaign here for people to go back to school and teach-"we need you blah blah blah" Now that I have my license and want to teach-and 4 years expenerience-they started laying all the teachers off-and NOT just the bad ones like the media likes to say- the ones with experience (even just 4 years) cost more than new ones and Yes they even have teachers here on work visa from the phillipines (I've personally seen it) taking jobs!! So Governor Perdue is trying to save education but the republicans have given her a catch-22- agree to our cuts or lose unemployment-what's the woman to do??

It's not just NC cutting teaching positions. In RI, approximately 1,500 teachers will not be returning to their jobs next Fall. In a state this small, that is a huge number. It all has to do with budget cuts, school closings and the merging or school districts. I have 2 sisters who have been teaching almost 25 years who are scared to death their school will be hit next.

I don't think any state is laying off teachers to replace them with teachers who are here on work visas. They are just closing schools and creating larger classrooms for the teachers lucky enough to hang on to their jobs. Pretty soon, kindergarten classes are going to look like college lecture halls.

Please contact the Huffington Post - they want to hear from people who are having their EB cut off. ANY media attention to this goes a long way to bringing the situation to light. See this thread for more information!

http://www.unemployed-friends2.org/t1875-are-your-eb-benefits-ending-please-contact-the-huffington-post#19077

Contact them now!

Lendme, glad to read this is still on the stove. I truly hope this work out for you. You are truly a one man band, yes you are. Dazed

Yeah, I kind of feel like it too. I wish there a few more members in the band on this solo tour I seem to be on.

lendmeflight2 wrote:Yeah, I kind of feel like it too. I wish there a few more members in the band on this solo tour I seem to be on.

Well there was Sir Paul McCartney's Band on the Run, but hey Paul never ran!

Oh heck I'll dub you Sir Lendme.

You know it is so scary, not only do the recipients of UC not realized things are getting very bad, neither do the legislators. I've made at least 5 calls to the PA Senator who is my districts Senator and also the Minority seat of DOL, not only did she not receive my calls but her staff was clueless. Makes me think this was all a government plan and that really scares me. Dazed

I think it is just incompetence on a bunch of levels. I do wonder why it is so complicated. Why is having a high unemployment rate not enough. The rule says there will be at least 13 weeks of Eb if the unemployment rate is above 6.5%..... except in this one situation where a strange technicality causes EB to get cut off when the unemployment rate is still 10%.

I really don't know what I am going to do. This weekend I will tell my roommate that nothing has happened and that I don't know if I will have the rent or not and let her decide what to do. I would rather do that than ask to stay for free.

I did have someone offer to pay my rent next month but I just can't accept that.

you've got band members lendme. I have emailed, but honestly I don't get any responses. It's disheartening. This weekend no check. I don't even see anything happening this week. What is so hard about voting on a standalone bill? They know there are thousands here in NC without a check for this week, who will be struggling, but it doesn't look like they care.

lendmeflight2 wrote:I think it is just incompetence on a bunch of levels. I do wonder why it is so complicated. Why is having a high unemployment rate not enough. The rule says there will be at least 13 weeks of Eb if the unemployment rate is above 6.5%..... except in this one situation where a strange technicality causes EB to get cut off when the unemployment rate is still 10%.

I really don't know what I am going to do. This weekend I will tell my roommate that nothing has happened and that I don't know if I will have the rent or not and let her decide what to do. I would rather do that than ask to stay for free.

I did have someone offer to pay my rent next month but I just can't accept that.

Sir Lendme, I think this will go through, it is just political posturing, hey accept your friends offer of rent money, its all gonna be okay.

I emailed several republicans and Democrast about the Extended Benefits. I received this back from Rep Alice Borsden. I don't understand what Sebellius has to do with it and why she said workers comp, a little confusing.

The answer to your question - which is a good one - can only be answered. Our new majority engaged in a mean bit of gamesmanship when they brought the workers' comp. bill back to the House but embedded the crippling budget continuing resolution to it. We are awaiting a decision from the US Sec. of HHS, Kathleen Sibelius, to see if she will allow a waiver to NC. If so, we can get the bill done this next week, meet the federal standards, and the payments can resume. And they will reach back to cover days not paid during this gap time. We are trying to get it done. Joe Hackney, our minority leader, is staying in close touch with the Governor. alb
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What they are trying to do now is get the federal director of Health and Human services to allow a waiver for NC. This way they can bypass legislation. I am guess that this would work sort of like a state of emergency allowing them to pay out. This is very clever, I hope it works. The downside to this is the possibility that she is talking about something to do with the tornadoes and mistook or letter for that.

I will write her again.

I got a response from Rep Martha Alexander and all she said was thank you for your email. That's it. No reply on what they plan on doing. I think this is dead in the water.

That was just a standard reply email.

I got a couple of responses back.

This is from Alice Bordsen:

I do know that Perdue has been in conversation with the Sec. of HHS in D.C. -- Kathleen Sibelius. She hopes Sibelius can extend our window for a bit more time and that this week the Republicans will become uneasy with the negative public reaction. If they do, they will allow us to vote on the benefits matter alone. Benefits would be restored for all days missed. Our minority caucus (Dem.s) is so much reduced that we have no ability to force the issue. This is driven totally by Republicans. I do believe that, at this point, only public opinion can restore sanity. Thank you for the email. I am really sad about this. It seems a big political mistake to have tied the welbeing of those out of work to a power play on the budget.




I also received an email from republican representative, Bob Rucho who told me that Governor Perdue "chose not" to extend benefits to us. What he forgets to mention is that the budget bill they attached to it would cost 10s of thousands of jobs in NC.

I asked him if they were going to try a veto override. He said that if Perdue would "let her democrats vote" that it could be taken care of on Tuesday. They need a 60% vote to override her veto. They have it in the senate and they need 4 democrats to vote for it in the house.

It sounds like the democrats know they can't really pass it without republican support and they are hoping that we will write the republicans and make them uneasy enough to pass it by itself.