WI State Assembly: Fixing The Unemployment Insurance System

Press release from the Wisconsin State Assembly:

March 4 2021

Fixing the UI System

This week the Wisconsin State Assembly unanimously passed legislation, Special Session Senate Bill 1, that directs the governor to begin upgrading the Unemployment Insurance (UI) computer systems at the Department of Workforce Development (DWD). The bill requires DWD to issue a request for proposals within 30 days after the effective date of the bill. The legislation also includes provisions to protect businesses, schools and local governments from frivolous lawsuits and exempts the one-week waiting period for unemployment benefits through March 14.

Hopefully, it will put an end to the governor's excuses for not starting these upgrades himself. Throughout the pandemic, there have been many missed opportunities and a lack of urgency by the Evers administration to address many of the issues with the unemployment insurance process. Here is a timeline outlining many of the missteps:

• October 2019 - DWD meets with IT companies about updating the UI benefits system (nothing moves forward)
• March 12, 2020 - Governor Evers declares a state of emergency and unemployment claims spike to more than 100,000 a week
• May 15, 2020 - DWD finally announces an expansion of call center hours to 7AM – 5PM (previously 7:35AM -3:30PM)
• May 27, 2020 - UI Administrator Mark Reihl says they are doing a “great job” managing UI
• June 23, 2020 - The governor said he has no answers for those on unemployment
• July 9, 2020 - Republicans roll out a plan to provide federal aid to the unemployed waiting in adjudication. Evers calls it a "stunt"
• September 15, 2020 - DWD state agency budget request does not include new funding for IT improvements
• September 18, 2020 - DWD Secretary Frostman resigns
• September 25, 2020 - Legislative Audit Bureau releases an audit showing less than 1% of calls were answered by DWD during the height of the pandemic
• December 14, 2020 - Legislative Audit Bureau releases an audit indicating DWD was largely responsible for delays when processing UI claims
• December 28, 2020 - DWD announced they are seeking public input to update the UI application process. Republicans had been calling on them to review the process since June

The governor can’t blame the computer systems as the main reason for the backlog of unemployment insurance claims. It's worth repeating that several nonpartisan legislative audits showed less than 1% of the calls were answered at the call center during the height of the pandemic and DWD was responsible for 85% of the delays in payments.

The people of Wisconsin have waited far too long for the state to resolve the issues at the Department of Workforce Development caused by Governor Evers.

Breaking Down the Backward Budget

Over the next few weeks, I am going to break down Governor Evers' backward budget proposal. This week, the focus is on the state's fiscal health and the negative impact his two-year spending plan would have on the state. His 2021-23 budget request to the legislature increases spending by almost 10% or more than $8 billion, which would be the largest increase since 2001-03. Governor Evers' budget request also hikes taxes by more than $1 billion. That figure doesn't even include all the tax increases like the energy tax that would cause electric bills to increase for consumers and businesses in our state. The governor also wants to bond over $1.6 billion in the Executive Budget and $2 billion in the Capital Budget. When you take all of those factors and more together, you can begin to see the negative fiscal result of this tax-and-spend budget. His budget literally turns surpluses into deficits.

The table above illustrates our efforts over the past eight years to get Wisconsin's fiscal health back on track. The end of last fiscal year we saw the elimination of the GAAP deficit in the state. This positive balance is reportedly the first time the state has reached this milestone since Wisconsin began putting out its Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. For those of you unfamiliar with this term, GAAP is an acronym for Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, which takes into consideration all of the state's spending obligations and not just what's in the state's checkbook on a certain date. Unfortunately, the governor's budget moves the state backward by increasing the GAAP deficit to nearly $1 billion.

Fortunately, even state Capitol reporters and an editorial cartoonist (see below) from the Wisconsin State Journal realize that this budget is bad for Wisconsin and only amounts to a liberal wish list. Here's one headline that speaks volumes: Tony Evers' budget takes nearly $2 billion chunk out of state's improving financial situation. Why in the world would we want the state to go backward, when we can move forward together?

Buy Local, Buy Wisconsin Grants

Wisconsin businesses and farmers who are looking to grow within local markets are encouraged to apply for a Buy Local, Buy Wisconsin grant. Proposals must be received before 12:00 p.m. on March 26, 2021. The Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) will award up to $30,000 in grant funding; requests can be between $5,000 and $50,000. Each proposal must include a cover page, a completed budget template and a project description.
To qualify, applicants must be individuals, groups or business involved in Wisconsin production agriculture, food processing, food distribution, food warehousing, retail food establishments or agricultural tourism operations. Since the grant began in 2008, there have been more 450 applications submitted. Of those applicants, seventy-six projects have been funded all over Wisconsin. Previous grant recipients have generated nearly $10 million in new local food sales, created and retained more than 200 jobs and assisted thousands of producers and markets.
Applications can be found online at https://datcp.wi.gov/Pages/BuyLocalBuyWisconsinGrants.aspx

This press release was produced by the Wisconsin State Assembly. The views expressed here are the author’s own.