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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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Edit: $82 Million Is Real Money

Perhaps it should come as a relief to Idahoans that our state had the Pacific Northwest’s lowest percentage of errors in the payment of unemployment benefits over the past three years. More than 9% of payments in Idaho were paid erroneously, while Washington had a 14.1% error rate, Oregon had a 12.2% error rate and Alaska — under the crack leadership of former governor Sarah Palin — had an 11.8% error rate. But when that 9% translates into $82 million paid to residents who had either already returned to work or had not met the state’s job search requirements, that relief should be somewhat tempered/Twin Falls Times-News. More here.

Question: How do you view the errors that cost Idaho $82M in unemployment benefits -- and the lowest percentage in the Northwest? Errors occur? Or something must be done to reduce this figure?



D.F. Oliveria
D.F. (Dave) Oliveria joined The Spokesman-Review in 1984. He currently is a columnist and compiles the Huckleberries Online blog and writes about North Idaho in his Huckleberries column.

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