19 days until disaster ... unless state leaders act

In just 19 days, Arizona is in for a rude awakening.

The coronavirus is spiking and more Arizonans are being tossed out of work — the inevitable result of Gov. Doug Ducey’s latest order closing bars, gyms and water parks.

Meanwhile, the $600-a-week Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program is about to expire, leaving out-of-work Arizonans to survive on Arizona’s unemployment pay — a princely sum which amounts to, at most, $6 an hour.

Did I say a rude awakening? More like a solid kick to the gut.

With steel-toed boots.

Filled with cement.

That is, unless our leaders – either federal or state – ride to the rescue.

So you can see why I’m a little nervous.

More than 400,000 Arizonans are now either collecting or waiting for unemployment pay, with tens of thousands more applying for help each week as the novel coronavirus continues to corrode the state's economy.

The vast majority of Arizonans who’ve been tossed out of jobs have been collecting up to $840 a week, thanks to the federal CARES Act that provided a $600-a-week boost to Arizona unemployment paychecks.

But that is scheduled to expire on July 25, leaving Arizonans to collect a maximum of $240 a week in state unemployment pay — the second-lowest payout of any state. And that’s assuming you even qualify. (The self-employed, contractors, gig workers and most part-timers need not apply.)

It all adds up to an economic disaster in the making, not just for the people who will be wondering how they will pay the rent but for the state’s economy that has been propped up by that federal unemployment pay program.

Which brings me back to Ducey, who on Monday put thousands of additional people out of work to try to slow the spread of COVID-19.

He needs to do two things immediately:

1. Convince Vice President Mike Pence, who came to town Wednesday, that Arizona needs Congress and President Donald Trump to extend federal unemployment assistance. I'm talking, down on your knees begging, if that's what it takes.

Wouldn't hurt if he could get his appointee, Sen. Martha McSally, on board either.

The Democrat-controlled U.S. House in May passed a $3 trillion coronavirus package that extended the unemployment program until January. But Senate Republicans, citing the addition of million of jobs in May and June as states began to reopen, have been reluctant to consider any extension, which they see as a disincentive to work.

That jobs report, however, came out before COVID-19 knocked Arizona and other states back into a tailspin.

Ducey on Monday called our situation "brutal" adding, "Lord only knows what this virus holds for us in the fall."

Well, what's that old saying, the Lord helps those who help themselves?

It may not be the politically prudent move, but Ducey needs to impress upon the Trump administration and Senate Republicans that Arizona desperately needs that federal unemployment assistance program to continue.

And 2. Call the Arizona Legislature back to the state Capitol to boost state unemployment pay in the event Congress fails us.

Let’s just be honest here. Arizona is a bad place to be out of work.

The average state unemployment check is $231 a week while the national average payout is $347, according to a December study by the Grand Canyon Institute. And you must work at least 30 hours a week to collect so much as a dime. No surrounding state comes even close to expecting their unemployed workers to survive on so little. In fact, only Mississippi offers less help.

That’s because Arizona’s employers pay some of the lowest unemployment taxes in the nation — on average $148 per covered worker vs. a national average of $277, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

The state hasn’t raised its unemployment pay since 2004.

Arizona’s legislators knew all this in May, when out-of-work Arizonans were 66 days from economic disaster. And they took swift action ... to adjourn.

Now Ducey needs to call them back to the state Capitol to raise the pay cap, expand eligibility and raise the earnings exemption (right now it’s $30), so that people who are working reduced hours can collect at last some unemployment pay to help keep them afloat.

If neither they nor Congress take swift action, hundreds of thousands of Arizonans are going to feel it on July 26.

Which, interestingly enough, is just eight days before our leaders in the Legislature and Congress will be asking you to reelect them.

Something to keep in mind, Arizona.