ATLANTA (March 8, 2012) –Sen. Nan Orrock (D-Atlanta) and Rep. Virgil Fludd (D-Tyrone), Co-Chairs of the Georgia Working Families Legislative Caucus, joined with the AARP and others to unify the effort against legislation that would shred the safety net for hard-working middle class families, and address the General Assembly’s failure to create jobs amidst the highest sustained unemployment in 60 years. They noted that the Senate’s passage of SB 469 last night would further undermine efforts by groups committed to helping working families of this state to organize and protest abuses by businesses in these difficult economic times.
“The number one priority for all Georgians is job creation, and that should be the number one priority of the Georgia General Assembly”, said Rep. Fludd. “Instead, as we review the wreckage after crossover day, we see a mass of legislation that hurts working families. We see Bills that undermine the core values of the American dream instead of rewarding hard work and playing by the rules,” he continued.
Sen. Orrock stated that “Amid growing economic inequality and high unemployment in Georgia that has exceeded national averages for seven years, we need to rebuild Georgia’s economy to work for everyone, not just the top 1%.” She added, “The legislation moving through the General Assembly contributes to the disappearing middle class by perpetuating the same failed economic policies and political decisions that pad the bottom line of Wall Street at the expense of Main Street and hurt hard working Georgia families.”
Rep. Fludd noted the failure of the House to take up his HB 816 Buy American Act yesterday. HB 816 would have supported state government purchases that buy American, rather than sending Georgia taxpayer dollars to support manufacturers overseas. “With so many still out of work through no fault of their own, its simple common-sense that Georgia’s tax dollars should be spent on creating good jobs here at home, not on companies that export jobs overseas.” He stated: “According to recent polling, Buy American policies are supported by broad, bipartisan majorities of voters, including 94% of Democratic voters, 90% of Republican voters, 88% of Independent voters, and even 89% of Tea Party supporters.”
Sen. Orrock noted that the Senate declined to take up her SB 320 that would have required state contracts for services to be performed within the United States, rather than outsourcing and offshoring Georgia jobs overseas after it passed out of Committee. She was, however, able to add her Bill as an amendment to SB 492 on Wednesday. “Buy American policies have been supported at the federal level by presidents from Ronald Reagan to Barack Obama, and have been proven effective in state after state. Passing this bill will help create jobs in without costing taxpayers a single dime. Over the last three years, Georgia cut more than 10,000 public service jobs. My amendment on SB 492 stops that massive offshoring of Georgia jobs for call centers and other jobs that Georgians are ready to perform right here!”
Many of the speakers at the Press conference decried the fact that Georgia’s high unemployment rate is being met with a proposal in Senate Bill 447 that would cut the lifeline for hard working Georgians who lost their jobs through no fault of their own. SB 447 would reduce the number of weeks to collect unemployment benefits from 26 to a sliding scale between 12 to 20 weeks – the lowest in the country. These cuts are motivated by a desire to reduce the responsibility of business interests that used tax holidays and tax cuts over the past 12 years to raid the Unemployment Trust Fund of its reserves, and necessitated $736 Million in borrowing from the federal government.
“It’s the business lobbyists who said we had too much money in the UI fund in the 90’s and now are making unemployed Georgians pay the consequences of their actions,” said Sen. Orrock. “We should be helping unemployed Georgians get back on their feet instead of cutting their lifeline, which is what SB 447 does to employees laid off because of staff reductions and budget reasons.”
SB 447 would not only reduce the weeks UI benefits would be available but also implement a “waiting week” that would mean a week’s benefits delayed to Georgians living paycheck to paycheck. The Georgia DOL already takes two to three weeks to get people their first unemployment check. This change would mean half of all working families receiving unemployment would lose an entire week of desperately needed funds.
Unemployment insurance has been shown to be the most effective way to generate an economic boost during hard times. These benefits act as a bridge to help families pay their rent, groceries and gas for the car so people can look for work. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that each unemployment benefit dollar generates almost twice that amount in economic growth.
Georgia’s unemployed already lose their benefits a month earlier than the national average, according to the Georgia Department of Labor. In addition, only one in five jobless Georgian receives state UI benefits, which only represents one-third of an average worker’s weekly wage for about three months.
SB 447 proposes to raise the taxable wage base on employers by a small amount after freezing it for the past 22 years. The modest increase would not begin to address the more than $3 Billion removed from the Trust Fund in employer taxes and holidays since 2000. In addition, Georgia businesses paid less in unemployment taxes than almost every state in 2011. (Georgia was 48th in the U.S. in the average unemployment tax rate on total wages.)
The Georgia Department of Labor estimates the total loss of benefits to unemployed Georgians by reducing number of weeks benefits and imposing a waiting week is approximately $195 million and affects hundreds of thousands of families. However, the small increase in taxes to Georgia businesses would generate an increase of only $105 million. Sen. Orrock and Rep. Fludd and the Caucus note that two thirds of the burden created by this bill is on unemployed families and only one-third on the businesses that created the deficit in funds. The costs to Georgia’s economy and its people from the proposed reductions in SB 447 vastly and unfairly outweigh the funds generated from the small tax increase to the same employers who caused the fund deficit to begin with.
SB 447 passed out of the Senate on February 24 and is now awaiting approval by the House of Representatives.
RELEASE
For Immediate Release:
March 8, 2012
For Information Contact:
Natalie Dale, Director
Kate Greer
kate.greer@senate.ga.gov
404.656.0028