Texas Unemployment Funds Won't Last in a Recession, Report States

Without the union movement, there would not be unemployment insurance. It's one of the things the labor movement worked hard to implement. Without a strong labor movement, of course, unemployment insurance would simply disappear. Of course, Gov. Rick Perry seems to be attempted to do so right now...

The Texas Unemployment Insurance Fund is near insolvency, the National Employment Law Project report.

In a survey of the states at the start of 2008, the NELP finds that unlike states with ample reserves for those who lose their jobs, Texas joins 13 other states in the "near insolvent" category. Four states are considered "not solvent," including Michigan, Missouri, New York and Ohio.

The 18 states in these two categories "will have difficulty riding out a 2008 recession without either federal borrowing or taking other solvency related actions," NELP states.

Gov. Rick Perry recently made a politicized move to reduce unemployment insurance payments by employers, setting up potential problems if more Texans hit the streets. While the Texas economy benefits to some degree from stratospheric oil prices, you don't have to be too old to remember the oil boom-bust cycle of the 1980s and how the bust struck Texas even as other states were recovering.

According to the NELP report, the UI fund balance for Texas at the end of
2007 was $1.77 billion. The reserve ratio of 0.46 at that time was lower than 40 other states (though up from 0.27 in 2000 during the George W. Bush era).

To see the full report, click here (pdf).

Of course, it gets worse. The AFL-CIO reports that the House voted last week to extend unemployment insurance an additional 13 weeks because of the bad economy, but President Bush vows to Veto it:

Some 200,000 jobless workers a month exhaust their UI benefits without finding a new job and about 3.5 million unemployed workers will lose jobless benefits this year. The legislation would provide an additional 13 weeks of UI benefits for jobless workers in every state and an additional 13 weeks to those in states with high unemployment rates (more than 6 percent).

But President Bush says he will veto the war spending bill if it includes the UI extension, along with several other domestic provisions, including improving veterans’ benefits, blocking Bush administration restrictions on Medicaid—including a $20 billion cut to states—and money to improve the levees around New Orleans.

It would seem that you gotta be a billionaire to get bailed out these days, doesn't it? If you are a big-shot banker who makes bad loans, you don't have to worry.

Remember, it's YOUR union that is fighting for you to make sure your rights are protected.