JFC speeds a bill to shield companies. But unemployment checks and upgraded technology? Not so much

I was trying to figure out why the GOP-run Joint Finance Committee scheduled a meeting today to discuss measures that Governor Evers had asked for a month ago on the state's balky and outdated unemployment system. And sure enough, it was to use the facade of the bill to add some things their corporate donors would like.

The Joint Finance Committee today reworked Gov. Tony Evers’ special session bill to modernize the state’s unemployment insurance system, adding a Republican provision to provide businesses and others liability protections from COVID-19 lawsuits.

The amended bill doesn’t provide the $5.3 million in state funds that Evers had requested in the special session bill to get the overhaul rolling. Instead, the proposal would require the Department of Workforce Development to seek and exhaust federal funds for the project. The agency would also have to issue a request for proposal for the project within 30 days after the bill took effect....

The liability protections would bar lawsuits over death, injury or damages for exposure to COVID-19 unless there is reckless, wanton or intentional conduct. The provision, which would impact businesses, nonprofits, schools, churches and others, would bar any claims after the law took effect.

Hey, why make a down payment to upgrade the computer system when you can bail out corporations for putting their workers at needless risk for COVID?

But there is a positive part of this new bill, which helps explain why it passed the JFC unanimously, and is scheduled to be voted on by the full State Senate tomorrow. It will restore many of the provisions that expired with the end of the CARES Act in late December 2020, including the expansion of Work-Share programs, keeping employers from being charged as much for new benefits, and the removal of the 1-week waiting period to get benefits. That waiting period came back last week, and is adding costs to the state in the process.

[Removing the waiting week] made the state eligible for enhanced federal matching funds. But the suspension ended Feb. 7 and is costing the state $1.3 million a week in enhanced matching federal funds to cover claims. Those who are laid off but don’t claim the maximum of 26 weeks unemployment are also now losing a week’s worth of checks.

The COVID bill Evers vetoed sought to extend the suspension through March 13, and the amendment the committee approved today includes a similar provision.

The bill is intended to be retroactive and allow all weeks to be paid, but we'll see if the Feds are OK with that. And while it would be nice to get some of these stimulus-based provisions back into Wisconsin law, we still need the Biden-backed stimulus to become law for all of these things not to expire in less than a month.

Worse, tens of thousands of Wisconsinites are still waiting for the benefits they've applied for over the last 6 weeks, as the old computer system "turned off" the PUA and extended PEUC programs when they expired on December 26 because Donald Trump failed to sign the stimulus bill in time. And for some reason, these programs have yet to be turned "back on", and claims for both PUA and the new Mixed-Earnings program won't be paid for two more months, according to the Wisconsin DWD.

Why this can't be done by pen and paper in the short term or some kind of manual entry method is beyond me. Governor Evers put $79 million in cash in his 2021-23 budget (as opposed to borrowing) to do the full upgrades to DWD's old system, but given what we saw today, I bet WisGOPs will spend more time complaining about the creaky technology instead of investing to change it.

While it will help to restore the CARES-era setups on unemployment programs, and I would guess that would reach Evers' desk within a week, it's more important for Wisconsinites to get those benefit checks sooner than later. And that, along with upgrading the technology so these delays never happen again, needs to be what we center our efforts on, instead of trying to protect businesses from their own negligence on COVID.