Wisconsin lawmakers pass bill that would end extra $300 in unemployment benefits. Evers 'can't imagine' signing it.
Molly BeckMADISON - Republican lawmakers passed legislation Wednesday that would eliminate the extra $300 per week unemployed people in Wisconsin have received under a federal program for those who lost work during the coronavirus pandemic.
Proponents say the legislation would boost the worker supply, but Gov. Tony Evers said in an interview Wednesday before the legislation passed that he was likely to veto it.
“I can’t imagine that I’ll be signing it,” Evers said.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said workers in Wisconsin should not have the incentive to stay home especially during high-demand months of summer.
"Work should be what pays, not waiting for a government paycheck," Vos said. "Businesses can’t wait until September for workers to come off the sidelines. They need help now."
Evers said Wisconsin is dealing with the same problem now that it wrestled with before the pandemic — a lack of workers. He argued Republicans could help draw more workers to the state if they invested in education, transit, health care and other priorities Evers has highlighted.
Rep. Michael Schraa, R-Oshkosh, who owns Leon's Custard in Oshkosh, said he closed for the first time in 33 years in recent days because he did not have enough managers to work that night.
"Business owners are killing themselves," Schraa said. "I just want them to know we hear them."
Schraa suggested workers were claiming to not want to take jobs in the food industry while the pandemic persists to avoid working, exacerbating shortages that already exist.
Evers cast doubt on the notion.
“We need a more comprehensive thing than just saying that there’s all these people that are messing with the system by not finding a job and there’s thousands and thousands of them. We don’t know that,” Evers said. “What I do know is we have to find a more comprehensive solution.”
The program that provides enhanced benefits is set to expire in September, but Republican lawmakers say it should be gone sooner to help business owners who need more workers during the summer.
Assembly Minority Leader Gordon Hintz, D-Oshkosh, said the recent influx of $4.4 billion in unexpected revenue shows the state's economy is working.
Hintz said worker shortages were a problem before the pandemic, citing a former Gov. Scott Walker-era campaign in 2017 to recruit workers from Chicago, because of policies that detract from workers' quality of life like making massive cuts to transit funding in the state's top employment centers of Madison and Milwaukee.
"People don't want to live here. The ads on the train in Chicago were not going to cut it," Hintz said.
Soon after the COVID-19 pandemic began, Congress passed legislation to pay people an extra $600 a week in unemployment benefits because hundreds of thousands were thrown out of work in each state. Congress later reduced the amount of the additional payments to $300 a week.
The arrangement increases the maximum weekly amount an unemployed worker in Wisconsin can receive from $370 to $670. The federal government pays for all of the cost of the additional benefits, which are set to run through Labor Day.
The bills passed Wednesday also would prohibit the Department of Workforce Development from waiving the work search requirement for reasons related to COVID-19.
Patrick Marley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contributed to this report.
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Contact Molly Beck at molly.beck@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @MollyBeck.