Survey: States uncommitted to jobless boost

President Donald Trump’s plan to offer a stripped-down boost in unemployment benefits to millions of Americans amid the coronavirus outbreak has found little traction among the states, which would have to pay a quarter of the cost to deliver the maximum benefit.

An Associated Press survey finds that as of Monday, 18 states have said they will take the federal grants allowing them to increase unemployment checks by $300 or $400 a week. The AP tally shows that 30 states have said they’re still evaluating the offer or have not said whether they plan to accept the president’s slimmed-down benefits. Two have said no.

The uncertainty is putting some families’ finances in peril.

Tiana Chase, who runs a community game room and store in Maynard, Massachusetts, said the extra $600 she and her partner had been receiving under the previous federal benefit helped keep them afloat after the pandemic caused many businesses to shutter.

For the past few weeks, she’s been getting less than $300 in unemployment. If that’s boosted by another $300, “it’s going to be a lot tighter, but at least I can vaguely manage,” she said. “I can cover my home expenses.”

Many governors say the costs to states to receive the bigger boost offered by Trump is more than their battered budgets can bear. They also say the federal government’s guidelines on how it will work are too murky. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, called it a “convoluted, temporary, half-baked concept (that) has left many states, including Pennsylvania, with more questions.”

New Mexico was the first state to apply for the aid last week and one of the first to be announced as a recipient by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But Bill McCamley, secretary of the state’s Department of

Workforce Solutions, said it’s not clear when the money will start going out, largely because the state needs to reprogram benefit distribution systems to make it work.

“People need help and they need it right now,” McCamley said. “These dollars are so important, not only to the claimants, but because the claimants turn that money around, sometimes immediately to pay for things like rent, child care, utilities.”