Democrats restore cuts in benefits for jobless

OLYMPIA – Saying it was a mistake to cut back unemployment benefits for seasonal workers two years ago, Senate Democrats on Friday voted to call a “timeout,” temporarily allowing more generous benefits until business and labor can agree on a long-term fix.

The 2003 reforms, Democrats said, pared back seasonal benefits so much that some construction workers, farmworkers, fishermen and other workers are now pawning possessions and in danger of losing their homes during the off-season.

“I believe they have come out on the short end of the stick,” said Sen. Phil Rockefeller, D-Silverdale.

The bill – a big victory for organized labor – passed 25 to 23 over the protests of Republicans, some of whom said unemployment checks are too generous. Business and labor lobbyists perched in the Senate gallery, intently watching the vote. The House – which already passed an earlier version of the bill – plans to concur with the Senate bill, and Gov. Christine Gregoire is expected to sign it into law.

Senate Republicans on Friday tried to stop the change, arguing that the 2003 reforms improved the business climate and should be given a chance to work. Changing things back now, said Sen. Luke Esser, R-Bellevue, “completely undercuts the progress that was made two years ago. … With this bill we’re shifting the transmission into reverse and slamming on the accelerator.”

Prodded by Boeing, other businesses and former Gov. Gary Locke, lawmakers in 2003 voted to change the way unemployment benefits are figured. It was a bitter defeat for labor unions, most of which opposed shrinking workers’ benefits.

Up to then, the size of an unemployment check was based on how much the workers earned during their two highest-paid quarters of a year. So a construction worker who made $20,000 in the spring and summer and nothing in the fall and winter would get the same unemployment benefits as someone who made $40,000 working year-round.

Lawmakers in 2003 changed that calculation to an average of three-quarters last year and an average of all four quarters this year. As a result, unemployment checks for many seasonal workers shrank dramatically.

That sudden change, Democrats said Friday, was unfair to those workers and their struggling families.

To pay for the larger benefits for seasonal workers, the bill approved Friday cuts unemployment benefits for all workers by about 4 percent. To avoid increasing costs to business, the bill taps $60 million in one-time federal dollars and freezes unemployment tax rates for the fishing and some agricultural industries. During the next two years, proponents say, the state must hash out a longer-lasting fix.

“This is a timeout,” said Sen. Rosa Franklin, D-Tacoma. The issue of balancing unemployment checks and the cost to businesses, she said, “has been hanging around our necks like an albatross for many years now and it needs to be resolved.”

Sen. Bill Finkbeiner, R-Kirkland, said that the state’s unemployment benefits are 300 percent of the national average. The high cost of unemployment insurance, he said, is hurting businesses, the economy and workers. “People would rather have a job than have a little more of a benefit from unemployment insurance,” he said.

Businesses need predictability, said Sen. Tim Sheldon, a Potlatch Democrat who voted with Republicans Friday. Without it, companies will be reluctant to move to or expand in Washington, he predicted. “We might help them (workers) today, but we’re not helping them tomorrow,” Sheldon said. “Tomorrow a lot of them might not be in that industry.”