Judge: Hands tied over $300 benefits
Wants to reinstate federal money
COLUMBUS – A judge says he wants to reinstate $300 in weekly federal pandemic unemployment benefits for Ohioans, but his hands are tied.
“I so badly want to issue the order, but I am bound by the rules and I do not have the authority to do so,” said Franklin County Judge Michael Holbrook in Columbus. “It’s with the Supreme Court now.”
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has filed an appeal with the Ohio Supreme Court, which blocked Holbrook from taking action to reinstate federal unemployment benefits that Gov. Mike Dewine ended early.
Dewine halted the payments on June 26, months before the federal benefits were set to expire on Labor Day.
But Holbrook said that unemployed Ohioans are hurting and the COVID-19 pandemic isn’t going away.
“I can’t do anything about it. I wish I could,” he said. “I can only hope that people think because there are people hurting.”
However, the Dewine administration does not intend to reinstate the benefits because Ohioans concerned about contracting COVID-19 at work have an alternative: vaccines.
“The payments were put in place because of concern that people might be forced even though it might specifically endanger their health,” Dewine spokesman Dan Tierney said. “It’s just a different phase of the pandemic.”
Tierney pointed out that President Joe Biden’s administration is ending the benefits Sept. 6, so the only disagreement is the date.