The purpose of this letter is two-fold : first to identify some of the problems facing the unemployment system and payout of benefits to recipients and second to point out how increasing payments and improving the Unemployment Trust Fund is a much better use of state money than giving politicians increases in their pay since their income is four times greater than the increasing number of people who are receiving unemployment benefits. 

The unemployment average for the United States in February 2012 was 8.7.  New York States average unemployment rate for the same time period was 9.2 and the average unemployment rate for Schoharie country where I live is 11.9.    Bronx County is experiencing the highest rate for the state at 14.1.  Obviously, New York is struggling with high unemployment and addressing some of the problems surrounding unemployment would be more beneficial to the state than adding to the already high pay for politicians.  Why is this a concern for me?  When I began to hear about the state assembly looking for a pay raise after the elections, I started to get a little angry.  Over the last ten years I have worked at increasing my level of education first receiving a BS in Elementary Education, adding a Masters to receive permanent certification (required in NYS), adding a Student’s with disabilities certification to make me more competitive in rural Schoharie County, and just recently completing a Masters in Library Information Sciences. I currently owe $60,000. In student loans, but that is another issue altogether.  After two years teaching in school libraries, positions were eliminated and I ended up unemployed.  As budgets continue to get cut in schools, employment is more difficult to find in the education field.  I have been receiving unemployment benefits for over a year now and have gone back to substitute teaching.  The way the New York unemployment system works, I have been penalized several times for working.  My weekly pay decreased when I took a part time library position working for the first three months of school.  Since September was in a separate quarter than October and November, my earnings for the quarter decreased and my benefits decreased by $100.00 a week.  Then when I decide to work at daily subbing, I am penalized when I work for a half day.  On unemployment I would receive $55 a day after taxes, I receive $45.00 a day subbing a half day before taxes. I am not allowed to decline work for half day or I am considered not ready, willing and able to work and then receive nothing.  I am lucky to get two or three days a week work.  Additionally, unemployment only pays wages for four days a week and I am not allowed to receive benefits during school breaks since I will have an opportunity to work again after break.  The same thing applies to summer breaks, it is assumed that I will be available for subbing at the start of a new year, so I cannot collect benefits over the summer.    I look every day for work but as you again realize, the education system is laying off more and more teachers each year.  I do appreciate the additional funding for libraries allotted in this year’s budget as that may open up a few more doors for me, but even though I have expanded my area of education, new jobs are limited.  I have expanded my search into other fields but again most don’t need the level of education I now possess.    

Obviously, the system could use some adjustments in how benefits are paid out to recipients.  I have compiled some information about unemployment benefits and wish to compare them to the “benefits” state assemblymen receive for the job they do.  Unemployment benefits top out at $21,000 a year.  Unemployment benefits were originally established to assist unemployed workers with rates payable at half what workers were making.   With an increase in inflation, the current benefits paid out are less than a third of what a worker would have been making, putting everybody who currently receives unemployment benefits at or below poverty level.  

Comparatively, New York State Assembly members pay begins at $79,500.00 and they do not work five days a week.  Additionally, they also receive per diems for additional services and expenses to cover meals and lodging when away from home. Others receive use of cars and free gas in the tank.   While the Assembly has not had a raise since 1999, unemployment benefits have also not risen since 1998. Assemblymen receive free dental insurance and most of their medical paid for.  I am lucky that my husband can cover me with his insurance but I am sure many other people are struggling to get any medical coverage.  

So, what to do?  If I understand the process correctly, unemployment insurance is a joint state- federal program which combines federal and state payroll taxes held in trusts managed by the US Treasury Dept.  Over the last ten years, many states have had to address a deficit in the state end of unemployment insurance funds.  New York tried to address this problem in 2009 but because of the dysfunction in the state government that year, nothing was accomplished. New York currently asks employers to pay unemployment tax on the first $8,500 of wages.  Many states have been increasing their taxable wage base in order to cover an increasing debt in their state.  Massachusetts’s tax base is $14,000, Connecticut’s is $15,000, and New Jersey’s is much higher at $28,900.  When there is not enough money put into the fund by New York State to cover the benefits paid out, New York State has to borrow from the federal government and of course will pay interest on the borrowed funds, costing more in the long run.  In 2009, legislation (S. 2245) was put before the state assembly to increase the weekly benefit rate for unemployment and to increase the wage base for the New York State Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund.  This legislation did have support behind it at the time but has not been addressed since. If this legislation had been passed then, many people would be making ends meet better and the Unemployment Trust Fund would be in better shape than it is now. (Information received from Teacher Salary Info page at http://www.teachersalaryinfo.com/average-teacher-salary.html) While increasing benefit rates to unemployment recipients will make a difference for many, changing some of the rules with regard to half days and substitutes who can’t collect over breaks would go a long way to easing financial burdens of many who collect unemployment benefits during this high unemployment period.

I don’t have any sympathy for Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg from Nassau County, who was quoted several years ago in regards to a pay raise.  “Your job takes over your life,” said Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg, a Democrat from Nassau County who makes $101,500 as a lawmaker and $9,000 to $10,000 moonlighting as a lifeguard. “You’re a public servant and you work to help people, and the pay is just ridiculous. Not to have a respectable pay, if you compare salaries to people in other fields, you find that legislators are way behind.”  I say to him, compare state assemblymen pay and responsibilities with that of a teacher, see where you compare then.   New York legislators are the third-highest paid in the nation, ranking behind only California and Michigan.   Most New York teachers have to work ten or fifteen years to come close to their pay scale.