Benefits set to expire for 6,500-plus jobless in Great Lakes Bay Region if no unemployment extension is passed

 

As Democrats and Republicans in Congress debate a possible extension of unemployment benefits, people like Dale Hauk are asking for them to put things into perspective.

 

"I think it's a bunch of bull …," said Hauk, a 52-year-old Pinconning man currently receiving unemployment benefits. "Get it done, fix it for these people who are unemployed. (Congress) sits there until everybody's ready to kill somebody else for a dollar."

 

Hauk, formerly a truck driver, was laid off in May and has been receiving unemployment benefits for a half-year. 

 

As politics engulf the lame-duck session of Congress on Capitol Hill, millions around the country and thousands here at home like Hauk in the Great Lakes Bay Region stand to lose their benefits soon.

 

"I could be screwed," Hauk said regarding the event of Congress failing to extend jobless benefits. "Then I'm going to lose everything.

 

"What can you say? You've got to pay some bills and let other bills go. What can you do about that?"

 

Hauk has been struggling to make ends meet. He cut Internet out of his budget and is preparing for even worse as the looming likelihood of unextended unemployment benefits grows.

 

"I'm worried about losing my utilities because I can only pay so much," Hauk said. "I pay $100 every two weeks — that's all I can pay. Now winter's coming and I don't know what I'm going to do."

 

Hauk has been relentlessly searching for employment since his May lay-off, he said, but to no avail.

 

"Every time I hear something (I'm applying)," he said Monday outside of the Michigan Works! office at 4061 Euclid in Bangor Township. "I'm going to grocery stores and stuff, too. I'll work as a cashier or something, but I can't seem to land anything."

 

If Congress doesn't pass an extension, more than 6,500 people in Bay, Midland and Saginaw counties will lose their unemployment benefits in the next five months. Unemployment rates in the counties were reported at 10.9, 8.9 and 11.1 percent in October, respectively.

 

Unemployment in Michigan stood at 12.8 percent in October. Nationally, unemployment was 9.3 percent in November.

 

But Ed Oberski, CEO of Great Lakes Bay Michigan Works!, said opportunity is out there.

 

"Even in the worst of economic times, there's a lot of hiring going on," he said, adding that Great Lakes Bay Michigan Works! this year is providing assistance to employers in filling 5,000 job openings. "The issue is, in harder economic times there's a greater number of people looking for each job opening."

 

Oberski said a plurality of the hiring occurring now in the Great Lakes Bay Region takes place in retail, hospitality, manufacturing and chemical process.

 

Getting hired at any time — not just in a bad economy — relates directly to skills, Oberski said.

 

"I tell people — and it doesn't matter whether you're working or not working —the only job security you have today is to have a set of skills that employers need," he said. "The skills you have today are obsolete tomorrow, so you constantly have to be upgrading those skills."

 

Obserksi said people like Hauk who have been unsuccessful in finding work for a long period of time often lack one important skill.

 

"If you're a job-seeker, there's a skill in the job search itself," he said. "The idea of how you look for work, how you promote yourself is an important thing that many people who have been working most of their lives have not had the opportunity to grow. Michigan Works! can help in that regard."

 

In Congress, the jobless benefit extension issue is currently at the center of a political battle between Republicans and Democrats over an extension of the 2001 Bush-era income tax cuts, which are set to expire on Dec. 31. Democrats have argued to renew the cuts only for households earning less than $250,000 annually whereas Republicans are pushing for a complete extension.

 

In response to the agenda of the Democrats — who will lose their hefty majority in the House and a few seats in the Senate once the new Congress begins next month — Republicans are opposing an extension of jobless benefits unless it is paid for by budget cuts.

 

Extending jobless benefits for another year would cost $56 billion, whereas extending the Bush tax cuts entirely for the next decade would cost over $3 trillion, according to estimates from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.

 

Norm Isotalo, a spokesman for the Unemployment Insurance Agency — which is part of the Michigan Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth — said a failure by Congress to extend unemployment benefits would definitely impact the economy.

 

"We have been paying out an average of $230 million a month in federal extensions," Isotalo said. "As those extensions phase out, that money will no longer be paid to unemployed workers in Michigan.

 

"Obviously, it would have a significant impact on families who rely on these unemployment dollars. Of course, that's going to trickle throughout the economy as less money's going to be spent on food and gasoline and mortgages and so forth. It's going to certainly have a significant impact on not only the families but also the local businesses these families spend their dollars at."

 

On average, $1 in unemployment insurance generates between $1.60 and $1.90 in the economy, according to Isotalo.

 

"I suppose you could multiply that by $230 million to get some gauge of what kind of an impact (a lack of an extension) would have," he said. "It's significant."

 

Last week, Gov. Jennifer Granholm asked Congress to extend jobless benefits for the sake of the entire economy — not just the unemployed.

 

"Money from unemployment benefits is rapidly spent in the local economy at places like the grocery store, the corner pharmacy and the gas station, all stimulating demand," she said in her weekly radio address.

 

U.S. Rep. Dale E. Kildee, D-Flint said Monday that he expects a deal to be made in Congress this week to extend unemployment benefits.

 

Kildee echoed Granholm's sentiments by invoking the effect unemployment benefits have throughout the economy.

 

"The best way to stimulate the economy out of all the programs is unemployment compensation," Kildee said, "because that money isn't put under the pillow — it's generally out to buy things. 

 

"That money is spent right away. It gets into the local economy — the grocer, the clothing store person makes money and is able to pay his people. So that money turns over many, many times in the community.

 

"So it's not just the dollars that come in to the unemployed," Kildee said. "Those dollars are immediately spent and help others — particularly smaller merchants — a great deal."

 

U.S. Rep. Dave Camp, R-Midland, is also supportive of an extension of unemployment benefits.

 

"My position has been supportive of extension of unemployment benefits," he said, "but I believe we need to do it in a responsible way. I have supported not adding those costs to the deficit but finding ways to pay for them."

 

Camp said posturing in the House last week hampered efforts by himself and others to offer amendments to an unemployment extension bill.

 

"If (Democrats) would bring the bill to the floor without the requirement of a supermajority and allowing amendments, I am certain unemployment benefits will be extended," Camp said.