Senate votes to reduce unemployment payments despite warning (Georgia)

[RamblingRose]

Senate votes to reduce unemployment payments despite warning

By Kristina Torres

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
12:15 p.m. Friday, February 24, 2012

Payments of Georgians' unemployment benefits would be cut by as much as half under a bill passed Friday by the Senate, despite a warning by the General Assembly's chief lawyer that it could be ruled illegal.

Senate Bill 447 would delay distributing the first unemployment check by a week, starting July 1. Payments would then drop from 26 weeks to a sliding scale of 12 to 20 weeks.

The idea is to give the state more financial flexibility as it pays back more than $700 million it borrowed from the federal government. It used that money to pay unemployment benefits during the Great Recession.

Sen. Fran Millar, R-Dunwoody, who sponsored the bill, said the payoff could encourage companies to hire. If the state took no action, however, he said companies face paying extra federal charges per employee to help pay back the money. That scenario would kill job growth in a fragile economy, he said.

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http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-government/senate-votes-to-reduce-1361424.html

[Earth_First]

1. I see their really intent on economic recovery...

This will help keep folks at least attempting to pay their bills.

[stockholmer]

2. Georgia, meet Greece

[MidwestTransplant]

3. Makes perfect sense because all those business that will lose revenue will of course hire more

people so they can avoid paying unemployment taxes. Sarah Palin level thinking at its finest.

[sakabatou]

4. WTF?!

Encourage to hire? FUCK NO! This is just a way to screw over the people.