Waiting for extra unemployment benefit? In Missouri and Kansas, prepare to be disappointed
If you’re one of roughly 240,000 unemployed Missourians or 110,000 jobless Kansans hoping for a boost in your unemployment insurance benefits anytime soon, you’re going to be disappointed.
President Donald Trump signed a memorandum Saturday authorizing an extra $400 for most of the nation’s unemployed, including those thrown out of work by COVID-19. The memo said $300 would come from Washington, with the states providing the other $100.
No one bothered to tell the states how to pay for the extra benefits.
It took the White House a few days to figure that out. On Tuesday, administration officials said they had adjusted the “mechanics” so that states don’t have to come up with anything.
The weekly benefit was cut to $300. It’s expected to last about five weeks.
State officials have been befuddled by the whole mess. “We are awaiting detailed guidance from the U.S. Department of Labor,” said Kelli Jones, a spokeswoman for Missouri Gov. Mike Parson.
Kansas seems just as confused. “Our team is looking into what this means for Kansans,” said a statement from Ryan Wright, acting secretary of the state Department of Labor. “The administration issued a broad memo, not a plan.”
Of course it didn’t offer a plan. As it has for much of the pandemic, the White House made a promise state governments could not possibly keep.
In Kansas, for example, an extra $100 a week would have cost roughly $44 million a month, assuming almost everyone now unemployed would have sought the extra cash. In Missouri, it would have cost $95 million for a four-week period.
Neither state has that kind of money right now. Legislators couldn’t have possibly come up with a way to pay for it, either, and certainly not quickly enough to get checks to the people who need them immediately.
Both states will now have to figure out how to get the extra $300 to the jobless. That won’t be easy, either. Kansas, and to a lesser extent Missouri, spent weeks figuring out how to pay thousands of newly unemployed workers, while adding a $600 weekly supplement from Washington, early in the crisis.
“We are dealing with legacy (technology) systems and limited resources,” Wright said. “If we divert those resources to try and implement a plan that may not be permanent and may not even be legal, it could ultimately prevent Kansans receiving those benefits in a timely manner.”
In fact, the president’s memo plays a cruel trick on the unemployed in our region, who deserve the benefits they have earned. It will take weeks to get the extra cash in unemployment checks, assuming money can be found — and assuming the whole program is legal, which it probably isn’t.
Paying the unemployed an additional $600 a week — a part of Congress’ original coronavirus relief package — may have saved the U.S. economy. It certainly kept millions from losing their homes or suffering other hardships that could be caused by a virus the government cannot contain.
That supplement has ended.
Republicans who oppose extending the $600 benefit now say it’s a disincentive to work, as if those who lost their jobs because of COVID-19 prefer battling the unemployment office for income. It’s absurd.
Study after study shows the impact of the $600 weekly benefit on employment has been minimal. Missouri and Kansas and other states understand the benefit and can handle distribution. Congress should renew it.
A bill has passed the House that extends the $600 weekly benefit through the end of the year. The Senate could take it up, pass it and put it on the president’s desk this week. If that’s impossible, lawmakers should quickly find a compromise that includes the full benefit.
Gov. Parson applauded the president back in July. “I just want to thank you ... for leading, as what good leaders do,” he told Trump at the White House.
The Missouri governor should call his friend in the White House now and explain why the unemployed in his state need help.
This story was originally published August 11, 2020 at 5:00 AM.