Unemployment Extension

NC Governor Beverly Perdue

from Gov. Beverly Perdue

Unemployment benefits are expiring, and I vetoed the bill that would have extended them. Our leaders in General Assembly would like the public to believe that that’s the whole story. But the full truth tells a different story.

The truth is that I fully support the portion of that bill that would have extended unemployment benefits; the General Assembly leadership knows it, and they could have easily passed a bill to do just that.

But before passing the unemployment extension, Republicans added language that could have had disastrous and destabilizing consequences for our state, forcing deep and reckless cuts to vital state services, eliminating thousands of teachers, and weakening public safety.
 

I simply could not sign the full bill into law. I hated to veto that bill because I know what it meant to thousands of North Carolinians the instant it happened.

Already this week, I heard from Mr. Keith Fountain, 48, who was in Raleigh recently to let his leaders know just how much his life will change without unemployment benefits.

Mr. Fountain was working for a telecommunications manufacturer in the Charlotte area until the plant he worked in closed. He started looking for work but has only been able to find seasonal work around the holidays and part-time work at a grocery store. His one stable source of income though, has been his unemployment benefits.

I also heard from Mr. Tracy Whitman, 49, of Burlington. After losing his job with a paving company in 2009, Mr. Whitman spent over a year applying for work. With no end in sight, he did the same thing that so many North Carolinians have done: he looked to our community college system for new training, enrolling in Durham Tech to reinvent himself. Without the financial security of an unemployment check, though, Mr. Whitman has had the rug pulled out from under him.

These are two stories. There are 37,000 more like them in the state. When so many North Carolinians have already lost so much, why do some members of our General Assembly seem so intent on counting political wins? For me, this has never been about political points. There’s too much at stake.

The good news for Tracy Whitman and Keith Fountain and the thousands of families who have been caught in the middle of this mess is that we still have time to make this right.
We cut a lifeline this week, but making it right is this simple: Stop the games. Give the people a clean bill. It will pass. I will sign it.