Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
Stumble
Friday, Sept. 17, 2010 | 8:17 a.m.
Sun Archives
CARSON CITY – The state will be in debt to the federal government anywhere from $750 million to $1 billion this year due to record unemployment.
And it will take years to recover, says Cynthia Jones, administrator of the state Employment Security Division.
Nevada employers will be the ones responsible for the repayment unless there is forgiveness by the federal government.
Jones and Bill Anderson, chief economist for the division, discussed the debt while testifying before the Governor’s Workforce Investment Board Thursday.
Nevada is responsible for paying benefits to the jobless for the first 26 weeks of unemployment. The extended benefits up to 99 weeks are the responsibility of the federal government.
Workers are now receiving an average of $300 a week, with the average length of benefits being 19 weeks.
Nevada posted a record of 14.3 percent unemployment for July, the highest in the nation. The August figures are due out Monday.
“We’re starting to see signs of things bottoming out,” Anderson said. “The job losses are easing.”
He said the jobless rate is “close to peaking” and added it may rise only one-half of one percent.
Jones said 44,000 Nevadans have exhausted their benefits and are not getting any payment from the state. There are an estimated 144,000 drawing the weekly checks.
She said that when the recession started, Nevada had the 18th strongest unemployment fund with reserves to pay benefits for one year, but now it has to borrow from the federal government.
The state Employment Security Council will meet Oct 5 to decide the rates employers will pay next year to finance the program. There are expected to be increases in what businesses pay in an effort to help the state fund recover and to start to pay off the federal debt.
The rates now range from .25 percent to 5.4 percent based on the worker turnover rate at a business. On average, the first $27,000 an employee earns is taxed at that level.
Anderson said young people have been hit hard by unemployment. Men have suffered more than women, partly due to the downsizing in construction, while minorities also are feeling greater effects from the downturn, he said.
Funding for unemployment is all backwards. How come only employers pay into the fund, but not employees? Certainly employees, who may one day turn to the fund for assistance during tough times, should be required to pay into it. They could maybe even offer an opt-out provision that would allow employees to withhold contributes to the fund in return for giving up their rights for future assistance.
Along a similar vein...why are Nevada employers the only ones who will be responsible for paying back the feds? Nevada workers who used fund money but are now back to work should surely be required to make some sort of repayment, however small it may be.
With no financial stake in unemployment insurance, workers have an incentive to overuse the funds.
Now it has come to the point of a viscious feedback loop.Jack up the rates and watch more bussinesses fail,thus adding to the unemployment roles even more.Time to get off this merry -go-round.
Anybody correct me if I'm wrong here, but isn't unemployment insurance another one of those unfunded federal mandates? The feds passed the law and collect (or at least skim) the payments from employers, but require the state to actually pay for it?
The only good thing about this is it shows how government regulation hurts small business, since they're the ones who take the brunt of it and are the least able to defend themselves.
"In the general course of human nature, a power over a man's subsistence amounts to a power over his will." -- Alexander Hamilton, Federalist Paper 79, 1787-88
Welcome to being heavily indebted to the federal government. What a burden.
This is ridiculous. Lets see punish the businesses that have stayed afloat. Allow 99 weeks of benefits to continue. Force people that don't have jobs to buy health care and if they don't penalize them. Support illegals. Tax the population that is working even more. Man I could go on and on but whats the point. Can't we see whats happening. Don't you get tired of this type of news everyday.
Wow, 300 dollars per week for unemployed workers. Up to 19 weeks. Wow! How generous. Can anybody explain to me please how much the unemployment insurance tax is for employed workers? Over here,we pay somewhat like 3 to 4 per cent of our paycheck. And our unemployment rate is around somewhat like that. The unemployment benefits we receive are also based on how much we made before we got out of job. That is 70 per cent of our paycheck, for up to 2 years before heavy cuts have to be taken into consideration. I think somebody who has been working for many years should qualify for longer unemployment benefits than lousy 300 dollars for not even 4 months. That's a joke, in fact, it's an insult to the honest people. It will only drive people into illegal activities or into social downfall. Or both.
From Switzerland
Senator Ensign is next on the list after we get rid of Senator Reid. They are both asleep at the wheel.
"Can anybody explain to me please how much the unemployment insurance tax is for employed workers?"
0 percent, nothing, nada.
Revenue collected via taxes should go towards the benefit of those who pay the tax. There has to be a nexus between the people taxed and the services provided. Nevada's unemployment insurance tax does not satisfy this requirement. Employers pay the tax, but employees get the benefit. Employees should be required to contribute to the unemployment fund.
hey gpigs, before you get your voluminous undies in a bunch, explain to us about the responsibility of our OTHER U.S. SENATOR....
what IS his name???
NV fell down by not attracting other business to the state. Now we suffer the consequences because gambling is the only game in town.
Harry, pick up the tab will you?
Unemployment insurance, like Social Security is just another government mandated Ponzi-scheme upon American businesses and their employees -- with non-payment of worker's wages funding these scams.
A better alternative would be to pay workers the monies being directed to these government scams directly to the personal retirement/emergency accounts of the individual workers allowing workers access to THEIR earned funds when appropriate.
: {
In other words, our REPUBLICAN governor forced the state to borrow upwards of a BILLION dollars from the federal government?
Funny thing about the "fiscal conservatives?" They aren't! They're never fiscally conservative. It's always about borrowing and spending and cutting the tax rate to increase debt.
Brian Sandoval will do the same. He's Gibbons' protege.
Rebelnomics, thanks for contributing.
Over here, the unemployment insurance is to be paid by law by each and every employee. I can't imagine you don't have that in your country. It's not really an advantage to be out of job and collect this as you know that you must find something as sooner or later you won't be paid anymore. On the other side, people with a job can easily give up a small percentage of their wage for this insurance. People with huge paycheck must pay more than people of the bottom feeder section. It should be a fixed percentage being taken off from every employee's paycheck. That system would work. Hard to believe the biggest nation in the world doesn't really have a similar system. I bet it has.
Greetings from Switzerland
Boris
Send Angle to Congress, let the unemployed blow in the wind, and watch things get progressively worse for NV as she votes NO! to anything that could be done to help the unemployed and NV taxpayers. If you cast a vote for her, this will be the end result for NV, and don't be complaining and blaming the president for your problems because you sent an unqualified person to Congress only because you hate Reid so much. The woman has already told voters how she feels about unemployment, Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, and the role of government in helping the citizens who pay taxes to support it. She feels that it's not her job to do anything except show up and appear before cameras to bash any efforts to help Nevadans.
The state had to borrow the billion dollars because they failed to collect enough in unemployment taxes for the THE FIRST 26 WEEKS OF PAYMENT to unemployed individuals. The federal government pays all of the amount beyond THE FIRST 26 WEEKS. The state ran out of money to pay THE FIRST 26 WEEKS and had to borrow from the federal government. Got that? Every cent beyond the initial 26 weeks is paid for by the feds and not included the the state's billion dollar borrowing.
Could it be that the Employment Security Council, a state agency, failed to require employers to put enough into the system (Yeah, low low taxes for you employers)to properly fund it?
rebelnomics...
umm, why should workers contribute? workers that qualify for these benefits are because their employer let them go for no good reason. if you let go for any kind of misconduct, you do not qualify and therefore the employer does not get charged for that turnover rate. so when some company has no work, and you are let go, thats what that fund is for and since they are paying for UI, thats how you get paid. its the employers fault you dont have a job. just like car insurance...if you get into an accident and its not your fault are you gonna go thru your own insurance carrier so you can pay more for your premium? no, you will go thru the at fault persons insurance so they can pay for all of it.
and unemployed workers are paying for it...for those that are on extensions have been paying federal taxes that are paying for their benefits anyways. and you pay federal taxes on these benefits as well...
Get your free money NOW while you can!!!!
Comment removed by moderator. Language.
When I was unemployed, I logged on to the State of Nevada web site hoping that I could find a job working for the state. Among the first things I saw was a notice that, due to budgetary constraints, the state had initiated a hiring freeze.
Uh.... what!?
The state was paying me while I wasn't working, but wasn't hiring anyone new to do any work? Does that sound stupid to anyone else?
Our country needs the 1940/50's work ethic back! Back when people would work to make ends meet NO MATTER what the job was. Today everybody wants that "special job" that they're holding out for. It's not gonna happen folks. You gotta work where work is needed. I see help wanted signs all over the city. They're not necessarily enjoyable jobs, but they're jobs! People need to get off their lazy .... and do something. People have been too spoiled and think they're too good for certain jobs, so they collect unemployment instead and say there are no jobs out there for them. Bull.
why are any of these clowns allowed to stay in office right now?
id have to say at least 90% of the people in office need to go.
no one that works for government is allowed to have ties with financial industry folks, construction companies, oil, etc. its a conflict of interest.
add term limits, no more than 10 or 12 years for these clowns.
and why do these people need presidents and former presidents to campaign for them? if you need babbling bill cracking jokes for you, you are obviously worthless.
why do campaigns cost so much? why do they need millions of dollars? this should be simply done and not spending thousands on retarded annoying tv ads bashing the others.
campaigns should be simple...you go on the news once a month and let the media broadcast your plans and issues and ways to solve them. you have 3 debates, sponsored by tv outlets. going around kissing babies and shaking hands will not get my vote, thats just a facade to show you care when you really dont give a damn about me or my family.
get rid of dems and rep parties and make it one...since we have 1 govt working for us (or against us in many ways right now). this partisan bickering is nothing more than a schoolyard dispute and its just beyond retarded now. its like watching a race riot.
our government as a whole is fine, but its the people and the "politics" involved are the problem. overhaul the entire system of people. weed out the garbage, weed out the bullcaca, end this partisan crap and start fresh. congress should work together as a whole no matter your party, or as i like to call it 2 partys trying to make one look better aka the master race.
unreal. fire almost all of them and lets start fresh. no more career politicians...do it slowly. add a level of government or a sector that oversees all of these peoples actions and ANY kind of misconduct needs to give the offender the boot
FRM...
Hit the nail on the head with that one.
Those of you BLAMING THE UNEMPLOYED for the failed policies of Republicans, Greedy Piggy Corporations & Wall St. Thieves are too darn much!
You are moronically parroting the Crazy Cat Lady;
"Unemployed workers are 'lazy' and 'spoiled'...
"Doesn't SOMEONE need their toilets cleaned? Surely you are qualified and available; GET TO WORK!"
"You OWE US NOW! Indentured Servitude for ALL PEOPLE who collected UNEMPLOYMENT during the GREAT RECESSION! You Awful LEECHES!"
Are you people FOR REAL???
I've haven't heard such unadulterated, blatantly ignorant claptrap since...well, whatever the last bit of nonsense the Angle Campaign put out... Very difficult to pinpoint...
It's ALL B.S.!!!
WAKE UP, LEMMINGS!!!
There is a way to pay the Feds that billion dollar the state owes, open up Yucca and charge the Feds big bucks for storing nuclear waste. We are the sole source of storage facility and we can name our price!
JesusLopez makes a pretty good point. When I was out of work, my thought was that if I can't find a good-paying job, what's wrong with getting a low-paying job? Nothing! That's what! My current job doesn't pay well, but it beats the ever-loving-daylights out of having no work at all!
Good points also by gmag. I should add the caveat that finding a low-paying job wasn't exactly easy, and I had to leave the state to do it.
I love Nevada, but I had to go to where the work was. Not everyone has that option. People have homes and families. I'm "portable" in the sense that I don't own land or a house. And, being single, my packing up and moving didn't involve anyone else.
If my comments on finding a low-paying job sounded preachy, I do apologize for that. I don't blame folks who are in the same situation I was in for their predicaments.
The "abundance" of low-paying jobs that Sharon Angle spoke of does not exist in Las Vegas. I know that first hand. Businesses that would usually offer such jobs are struggling, too.
No100...
Good luck to you, wherever you landed. Things are TOUGH out there. I just wish the Haters wouldn't hate so much on those who have found themselves in a predicament not of their own making, with very few alternatives.
I hope we prosper again and you return to the state.
We can use all the good people we can get.
It's a federal repository, Nevada can't charge a dime for nuclear waste storage at Yucca.
Sharron wants to use the site for her pie-in-the-sky fantasies about nuclear waste reprocessing, yet another UNSAFE idea from Crazy Sharron.
The anti-christ will be issuing a 0ne world currency within 2 or 3 years.
The economy will bounce back. Government spending created many jobs in the Great Depression, Hoover Dam for example. Some view that as socialism, others as a wise public investment -- a cool site; Balkingpoints ; incredible satellite view of earth
@rebelnomics
nv business are paying UI b/c thats the price of doing business in nevada. maybe YOU would be likely to overuse the current system and would need an incentive.
@jesuslopez - do u see 144k of those help wanted signs? do u know how many people apply for each of those "not so enjoyable" positions? u think people are unemployed b/c they are lazy? i'm about to lose my house and savings - we must have waaaay different ideas of what SPOILED means.
you have a really jaded sense of reality. its the dept of labor that reports the statistics - so u dont have to believe the "bull" from the unemployed about the economy and available jobs.
Comment from above:
I guess John Ensign will pick up the tab when Harry Reid picks up the tab, Harry has been in office a lot longer than Ensign and he is not picking up the tab either so.............
Does anyone else recall Governor Gibbons saying he didn't think it was a good idea to take this money?
Edgewise:
If we can't charge anybody for storing their nuclear waste, we can tax the heck out of them for the delivery using our roads and airspace. "FREE NUCLEAR STORAGE, JUST PAY OUR CHEAP NUCLEAR ROAD TAX: $1 million per ton of nuclear waste"
gmag39...you are in the minority, you know...educated, informed and in possession of coherence.
No one, who is weathering long-term unemployment is having a "party-lifestyle."
It is easy to kick the downtrodden. They're easy targets. They can't fight back. Their guns have been in the pawnshops, since 2008 or 9.
Pawn shops (150% interest) are having a heyday, but will be stuck with used inventory in the end.
Where is the "free transportation program" for people, who are stuck in Las Vegas, but don't have the means to get out?
Of course, where would you go? Everywhere is on target for this collapse...even overseas.
Positive & negative attitudes are utterly irrelevant in the face of the cruel taskmaster...REALITY.
Captain Kirk doesn't believe in "no win" scenarios, but that's science fiction...in space, not Las Vegas.
"we can tax the heck out of them for the delivery using our roads and airspace"
Again, WRONG. Check the the United States Constitution, Article I, Section 8, Clause 3.
Yet another right-wing "Constitution-lover" who has NO IDEA what it actually says.
@Nancyb:
Hopefully, Senator Ensign will be the next to go. Should have left months ago. (don't let the door hit you on the way out Senator).
gbigs - Today, this paper noted that the safety of Yucca is not in doubt.
Your looking at the MONEY gbigs not the threat from terrorists.
The water supply must be protected for Nevada at all costs.
The most serious safety problem is transportation of the Nuclear Waste on the highways.
This would create a nightmare problem for Homeland Security. You ever heard of a road side bomb GBIGS? Hundreds of trucks moving Nuclear Waste every day like clock work on the same roads.
GOP always looking to make an extra buck at any cost.
gbigs, do a little homework, would you? And I mean from credible sources. Like, use the Dewey Decimal System and find out what's real and what just fits your personal values.
edegewise: I think you are one of those Harry's boys or environmental crack pots who will do or say anything to bury Yucca. I suggest we just let the big boys fight it out and we will see what happens a few years from now.
Tony, don't you know? Republicans don't care about jobs. Just the rich and the really rich corporations. We are nothing but wallets to them. However, they fail to connect that without decent paying jobs, we aren't shopping and getting buttbonged by their banker friends with all of their fees. We are all socialists. We need each other to circulate money to make the world go round.
For some reason, the GOP things only the top 2% in this country needs to circulate money to themselves.
gbigs
Do the unions give any support to the people that have been laidoff?
Where was the most powerful senator in the country, Nevada's Harry Reid, during all this?
reg 373 - Check out the depression of 1920. Progressive Pres. Wilson had raised taxes and regulated industry and had a stimulus package. When Harding took over the country was in dire straits.
Harding cut the budget in half, reduced taxes for everyone, cut the size of government and reduced the national debt by 1/3. In 18 months the economy rebounded.
After Harding died Coolidge took over after Harding and continued Harding's policies and throughout the 20's there was great prosperity.
Then Progressive Hoover became president and returned to a progressive agenda which FDR continued during the Depression of 1929 which continued until the WWII.
Pelosi, Obama and Reid are following the progressive agenda which historically prolonged the depression, raised taxes, created huge entitlements, and expanded government.
Reid, Obama and Pelosi have only made the present-day economy worse. Worse, they want to keep spending and give 12 - 20 Million illegals Amnesty. Obama didn't include all those extra people in his Obamacare gimmicked calculations.
And you think Obama's spending will help us - NOT!