Va governor considers jobless benefts changes

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Gov. Timothy M. Kaine plans to recommend to legislators two changes to state unemployment benefits law to extend and enhance benefits for Virginia's growing ranks of jobless.

Kaine said Thursday on his monthly radio program on WRVA that he is working on which changes he will offer to the General Assembly. It aired hours before the state's expected announcement that the unemployment rate exceeded 6.5 percent in February, up from 6.4 percent.

The $787 billion economic stimulus package Congress passed and President Barack Obama signed into law last month lists four criteria for states to consider that expand benefits or relax eligibility.

Virginia would have to enact two of the four.

Any of them would eventually increase the taxes they pay into the unemployment insurance trust fund, according to powerful state business lobbies now urging the state to reject the enhancements.

But the governor has to weigh those interests against suffering from the fastest growth in state unemployment rates in decades. To reject the aid, as Republican governors have done in South Carolina, Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Alaska, would amount to a direct rebuke of Obama, who appointed Kaine in January to head the Democratic National Committee.

When asked Thursday if he would recommend the changes to state unemployment benefits law, Kaine replied, ``I am inclined to.''

``Now we're working on exactly which of the two we would pick ... and what's the right vehicle to do it,'' he said.

If it wins legislative approval, the measure would pump about $125 million into the unemployment insurance trust fund, stalling increases in the tax employers pay for a while, Kaine said.

Three of the changes would increase costs moderately. They involve proposed law changes that:

—Extend benefits for party-time workers. State law does not provide benefits now to displaced workers seeking part-time jobs. The cost would be about $10 million annually.

—Extend the period for drawing unemployment for people who lost jobs but are doing well in vocational retraining programs. That would cost Virginia about $8 million a year and apply to nearly 950 people, according to Virginia Employment Commission figures.

—Allow benefits for people who had to leave a job for compelling family reasons. Those include the necessity to leave a job because a spouse is transferred to another city, the need to care for an ill or disabled family member full-time, or someone who must move to be safely away from a violent, abusive spouse.

—Make dependents in the households of those who lost jobs eligible for $15 a week in benefits. Kaine said he is not considering that option because of its cost. Nearly 113,000 people would qualify, costing the state an additional $38 million a year and eventually boosting the unemployment insurance taxes employers pay by $10.66 per employee per year.

While Kaine did not firmly commit to which two he will recommend, he said the first two ``had the most salience to them.''

Pushing any of the measures through a Republican-controlled House of Delegates will be difficult at best.

Virginia has been ranked the most business friendly state in the nation the past four years by Forbes.com, and its low unemployment insurance tax is one of the factors. Virginia employers pay $98 per year per employee into the unemployment insurance trust fund, the national average of $258 and less than one-third the $342 employers in North Carolina pay.

The unemployment benefits Virginia pays are also among the leanest in the nation. The state pays out an average of $270 per week to 89,000 individuals drawing benefits.