Proposals to secure unemployment benefits

A resolution and a statutory change designed to make sure the governor doesn't pass up federal unemployment insurance funding were introduced in the Nevada Assembly on Monday.

Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, said the two proposals will bring $270 million in stimulus money to Nevada.

The biggest part of the funding is some $200 million that will extend unemployment benefits another seven weeks. That makes someone unable to find a job eligible up to 79 weeks.

The second piece is the part Gov. Jim Gibbons has said he objects to: Another $70 million the state is eligible for if it changes the law so that more people are eligible for unemployment checks.

She said the Assembly Concurrent Resolution 17 and AB469 will be fast-tracked, with hearings on them set for Wednesday.

The action is being taken because Gov. Jim Gibbons has said he plans to decline the unemployment insurance portion of the stimulus. Gibbons has said the legal change expanding the number of people eligible would be a permanent commitment by the state which would cost the state money after the federal funding was gone.

ACR17 says acceptance of those funds is important because of Nevada's high unemployment rate.

"Nevada cannot risk losing these funds and the additional benefits they will allow in the event the governor chooses to reject them," it states.

The resolution concludes that, "to the extent they are not accepted for use by the governor," the Legislature will request those funds.

"It would be unconscionable to deny people these benefits," said Buckley.

She said the costs are negligible compared to the millions the law change will bring to Nevada.

Commerce and Labor Chairman Marcus Conklin, D-Las Vegas, said the unemployment insurance money will have an estimated economic effect in Nevada of more than $500 million. He said that impact will help the state's economy weather the recession and recover more quickly because people who receive the benefits will spend the money.

The portion Gibbons doesn't like, he said, will cost the state an estimated $6.7 million a year which means the $70 million Nevada gets for making the change will cover the cost for as many as 10 years.

Buckley said the state will have long recovered from the economic recession by that time and won't have to raise unemployment insurance taxes to continue the coverage.

- Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or 687-8750.