Barfield criticizes unemployment money tactic
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The Jindal administration is decrying a sleight-of-hand move Monday on the House floor that would clear the way for Louisiana to accept a controversial $98 million federal stimulus payment for temporarily higher unemployment insurance benefits.
In the long run, businesses will pay higher taxes to maintain higher benefits as a condition of receiving the federal money, said Tim Barfield, executive director of the Louisiana Workforce Commission. That, he said, could mean lost jobs.
The House Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations deferred action on a resolution to accept the money last week. Monday, state Rep. Avon Honey, D-Baton Rouge, authored an amendment to House Bill 841, which deals with injured worker medical examinations, to include the temporary expansion of unemployment benefits with the one-time $98 million federal payment, Barfield said.
“This is plainly bad policy that is wrong for Louisiana businesses and those employees who depend on them for a living,” Barfield said in a news release. “The governor will veto this measure in any form that it would ever come to his desk and we are asking legislators to join us in working against this measure in addition to speaking out against the covert tactics that were used to quietly put this into a bill in the House.”
The action on HB 841 came during a period in which only non-controversial local bills were to be considered on the House calendar, and no debate occurred, said Jim Patterson, who heads government relations for the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry.
The bill now moves to the Senate for further action.
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