McCrory vetoes bill over review board changes
Published June 25, 2014
by Richard Craver, Winston-Salem Journal, June 24, 2014.
Gov. Pat McCrory vetoed a bill Tuesday that would have kept the minimum number of unemployment insurance benefits at 12 weeks because of his concern about how appointees to a review board were changed.
The veto could prove to be a pivotal test of McCrory’s veto prowess considering that the House passed the final version of HB 1069 by a 69-46 vote Thursday – right at the 60 percent level of those voting required to override.
There were 62 Republicans and seven Democrats who voted in favor the bill, and 34 Democrats and 12 Republicans who voted against.
By comparison, the final version passed the Senate by a 43-6 vote on June 16.
McCrory spokesman Josh Ellis said it is the governor’s first veto for the short session, and his third overall. The previous two vetoes were overridden.
The bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Julia Howard, R-Davie, would make several changes to the state’s UI benefits law that went into effect in July 2013.
The most prominent changes are stripping out the minimum benefit week total from the sliding scale criteria, along with tightening the criteria for measuring whether a UI claimant is actively pursuing work.
What McCrory objects to is the decision to alter the composition of the review board, including requiring staggered four-year terms for the three members, which include former Greensboro Mayor Keith Holliday.
The board rules on appeals of unemployment board decisions. The job pays $120,737 a year for part-time work.
The bill would have Holliday’s term expire Monday, the term of Stanley Campbell, a former Charlotte city councilman, on June 30, 2015, and the term of Jeanette Doran, executive director of the N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law, on June 30, 2017.
Holliday’s seat would be considered as vacant and would require McCrory to submit a nominee for General Assembly approval.
A recommendation was made in a legislative committee to take away two board appointments from the governor. However, the final bill keeps all appointments with the governor, pending General Assembly confirmation.
“Although the vast majority of this bill contains much needed revisions to unemployment insurance laws, there are unacceptable provisions which stagger and shorten terms of current lawfully seated members,” McCrory said in a statement.
“I appointed these members following a previous legislative directive that did not require confirmation for initial appointees. The three qualified, capable and bipartisan appointees by all accounts have performed well.
“I look forward to working with House and Senate leaders to help craft a new bill which addresses our concerns, while also improving employment policies,” he said.
Given that the House and Senate is struggling to reach a compromise on the 2014-15 budget, which is supposed to go into effect July 1, some analysts question the level of importance legislators will put on overriding the veto.
“There are enough potential votes to override a veto, but do folks consider it an important enough issue to take up as the session winds down?” asked John Quinterno, a principal with South by North Strategies Ltd., a research firm specializing in economic and social policy.
“Do people want to make the governor look bad or promote the image of an internally divided party?”
The board provision also produced a public clash between Howard and Dale Folwell, assistant secretary of the N.C. Division of Employment Security.
Folwell has claimed that Howard is trying to position herself for future appointment to the board. Howard denied the accusation. Folwell said during a legislative committee meeting earlier this month that his agency had been “bullied” by Howard with regard to the board composition.
Unemployment benefits now rise and fall based on the state’s unemployment rate, from a range of 13 to 20 weeks with a jobless rate above 9 percent, to a range of 5 to 12 weeks when the rate is at or less than 5.5 percent.
Under HB 1069, the minimum weeks would not drop below 12. Because the bill would have become law July 1 if McCrory had signed it, it could have replaced the minimum provision of the existing sliding scale before its next changes takes effect July 6.
With the state jobless rate at an average of below 6.5 percent for the months of January, February and March, a calculation formula will drop the number of weeks from a maximum of 19 weeks to 14 weeks and a minimum of 12 weeks to seven weeks on July 6. Affected are claimants that begin that week.
Before the law was enacted, the maximum benefit amount was 26 weeks — the same level that 44 states still maintain. The lowest current maximum benefit limit is 18 weeks in Georgia, while Florida also is at 19.
The bill that McCrory signed into law in February 2013 also reduced the maximum weekly benefit from $535 to $350.
Currently, claimants are required to have sought work at least two different days per benefit week, and make at least two job contacts.
The proposal would remove the required minimum number of days involved in pursuing a job, but raise the number of weekly job contacts to five potential employers.
Claimants must continue to record their work-search efforts and make them available to N.C. Division of Employment Security officials upon request.
Because benefits are provided on a week-to-week basis, the bill would require claimants to report as requested to an employment security office and provide a photo identification to verify their claim.
The photo ID can be one of the following documents: a driver's license; U.S. passport; U.S. military ID card; veterans ID card issues by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; a tribal enrollment card issued by a federally recognized tribe.
The bill would require the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles to provide a Social Security number to the state Commerce Department and/or the employment security commission “for the purpose of verifying employer and claimant identity.”
