AUGUSTA, Maine — To combat continued high unemployment rates, Congress took an unprecedented step earlier this year, authorizing a pilot program allowing use of unemployment benefits to subsidize the creation of full-time jobs. However, it’s unlikely Maine employers will be able to participate in the program because the state doesn’t have the money to fund the it.
“No doubt it might very well put people back to work,” said Maine Labor Commissioner Robert Winglass. “It’s a question of affordability on the one hand because there is no federal money that comes with the program.”
He said the state has no funds to use to administer a pilot program and he said it would be expensive to provide the monitoring required under the federal measure. Up to 10 states can be approved to participate in a pilot project that would allow funds normally restricted to paying benefits to subsidize employer-provided training or pay employers that hire those on unemployment.
“Would we like to do something with this? Of course,” Winglass said. “But we do not have any resources and we are not the only state that is not applying because of the lack of funds to administer a pilot.”
David Clough, state director of the national Federation of Independent Businesses, said he has no doubt such a program would draw support of employers and those looking for work.
“Certain businesses would be very interested in the program,” he said. Clough said if the pilot was focused to help provide on-the-job training it would draw support from employers hard pressed to pay for training workers even though they would like to hire additional workers.
“We’ve got 50,000 people out of work in Maine and we should look at anything that might help get them back to work,” Clough said.
Peter Gore, vice president of the Maine Chamber of Commerce, said there would be employers that would take advantage of the program. He said there are jobs in the state going unfilled in some sectors such as manufacturing, where training is crucial, and a pilot program could convince employers to hire more workers.
“I think there would be interest, but there would also be questions,” he said.
Gore said employers would worry about using a pilot that would end when the need would not. He said that would raise the issue about the ongoing cost to the unemployment trust fund and whether using the pilot could affect employer tax rates in the future.
“I can’t honestly say how much interest there would be, but I think there are employers, particularly in the manufacturing sector, that would seriously look at it,” he said.
Gore said he does understand the concerns of the Labor Department about the costs to administer the program. He hopes Congress would provide at least some administrative funds to allow states like Maine to apply for a pilot project.
“I thought that there would be grants available to help administer these programs,” said Sen. Olympia Snowe, who supported the measure in February. “This is a common sense and practical approach to helping the unemployed and employers at the same time.”
The Republican senator said Congress should act to make sure federal Labor Department officials make grants available to the states that want a pilot program. She said it is a “win-win” for both workers and employers and the best pilot projects should be used as a model for a program available in all states.
But U.S. Representative Mike Michaud, a Democrat, said the pilot proposal is a bad idea that he opposed and is concerned it will undermine the unemployment system.
“Unemployment benefits should only be used to help the unemployed,” he said. “There are other job training programs out there that can be used without using the unemployment trust fund.”
Michaud said ensuring the fiscal stability of the trust fund is a high priority for him and that the pilot programs could end up undermining the fund over the long haul.
Winglass said if Congress does act to provide some administrative funds for the pilot programs, his agency would closely look to see if they could propose a pilot program that the state could afford.
We have a Governor who claims, when he is not busy putting his foot in his mouth, that the primary focus of his administration is job creation. But yet when a program comes along that his own Commissioner of the Maine Dept. of Labor, business leaders and the Chamber of Commerce agree would be of great benefit we fall back on the old “we are broke” line. We weren’t too broke to construct an $850,000 boat landing at a lake in Ellsworth. We weren’t too broke to pony up $300,000 plus for a feasibility study for a private road. But when it comes to actually doing something that will put Maine people back to work and help Maine businesses we just don’t have the resources. How about putting LePage’s latest tax cuts on hold for at least a short period of time. I’m sure our State’s wealthiest people will survive and we just might be able to go from a State with a rising unemployment rate to one with a sinking unemployment rate. You have been telling us since you were running for office in 2010 that you were all about JOBS, JOBS, JOBS Mr. LePage. How about you show some leadership and do something about it.
The best way to end the continued high unemployment rates is to vote obama out. Socialism has proven to be a failed economic model. It’s that simple.
Reaction #1: For every complex question there is a simple, and wrong answer.
Reaction # 2: Are Obama’s polices being equated with socialism? No socialist worth the label would recognize them as such.
Reaction #3 is akin to # 1: No thinking person would simply dismiss the complicated history of socialist thought and action in widely varying geographical and cultural bases as a failed model. Socialism has no chance of success without a democratic process with which to build. The most notable tyrannies calling themselves socialist, such as the USSR and its client states (Tsarism by party rather than dynasty) and Maoist China put socialists in jail, in camps or to death. It is a popular notion among many right-wingers that the European states are examples of socialism in practice, and to some degree the social programs from health to labor protections to education are in line with social-democratic values. No one but no one should think the multi-nati0nal corporations (particularly the bankers) that lie at the base of European economies for better or worse are anything but capitalists. They may be better mannered than those on this side of the pond, mainly because they had to come to grips with their social responsibilities (thanks to the pressure of social democratic parties. They may have better manners than their American counterparts, but they are just as grasping, and they need close monitoring just as the casino capitalists on Wall St. and elsewhere. But whatever they are, they are not socialists and neither is the basis for their economic life.
Someone once said full-blown socialism worked a brief while in Barcelona in 1937-38, during the Spanish Civil War, until it was literally killed by the Communists, with Stalin’s blessing(see George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia). In all other instances, social democrats played a major role in the survival of democracy wherever they have been allowed and have not been shut out of the political process. It’s a fascinating history, and no matter how one stands philosophically it deserves more than a simple one-line dismissal.
The best way to end the high unemployment is to get rid of the disfunctional Congress! How would you expect any jobs to be created when you have a bunch of Repubs who are willing to sacrifice the wellbeing of the country to get rid of Obama? How many jobs bills have been shot down by these adults acting like a little kid throwing a tantrum? Congress has to act of the bills put forward. You must think the POTUS has the total power to make policy and pass bills of his own. Talk to the Teatards who are destroying this country.
It’s a damn good thing congress is deadlocked, it’s the only thing that has slowed the damaging ineptitude from the white house.
I guess you misunderstood what I was saying. The shortcomming is a Congress that is so busy shoveling in the bribes that they have completely forgot who they were representing! Maybe that is why so many repub congressmen and senators are jumping ship!
With over 34,000 lobbiest in DC how can any thing get done ?
Unbelievable. And to what do you attribute the endless “damaging ineptitude” emanating from the Blaine House?
The economy was destroyed by the GOP during Bush2 and Cheney’s reign. They put the economy back in the depression era 1930’s. Funny how the Right forgets this inconvenient truth when they want to slam President Obama. Back during the Bush years the GOP would just repeat something over and over and over until the sheep in our society believed them. I suppose they hope that most of the country has forgotten this tactic and will buy into their ridiculous claims for the next election. Lets hope not.
Rather than give people training, the department of labor is harassing people on unemployment. If you do not apply for 15 jobs in 5 weeks they call you and harass you similar to a collection agency. Then if you don’t humble yourself to them, they state you owe the amount you have received from unemployment for 5 weeks. Then you can appeal. It has been noted that if you appeal, there are no required amount of contacts you have to make in 5 weeks. Instead of training people, Lapuke would rather spend money on these hearings. Bully on big guy….lame duck for you with no orange sauce.
However, it’s unlikely Maine employers will be able to participate in the program because the state doesn’t have the money to fund the it.
Fund the it???
the state of Maine used to have a program that funneled private money from local firms, into schooling unemployed men and women for specific jobs that need to be filled in the state. The program, created under the Baldacci administration, was very successful and used zero net tax dollars. What a surprise that Governor LePage eliminated the program in his first 4 months in office. Where are the jobs???
Winglass is just one more Lepage appointee who lacks the skills to do his job. Period. When I heard LePew lie to an entire roomful of his sponge brained supporters re. unemployment compensation, Winglass sat there and watched the outright lie being swallowed up.
Apparently LePage feels the same way about workers as he does about students.They must be too stupid to learn.