In the wake of President Donald Trump’s nearly too promising and inadequate wave of executive action, some Republican governors admit how complicated it will be for states to pay their 25% of weekly unemployment insurance benefits.
One of the highs on this front is the governor of Arkansas, Asa Hutchinson (right).
“The state of Arkansas can do that, it would be a challenge and it would take time,” he told US News and World Report. “We’ll have to adjust some of our priorities.”
In a phone call Monday with White House officials, Hutchinson allegedly suggested that they return to the negotiating table for a legislative agreement. According to Politico, he dismissed executive movements as “not our first choice.”
Hutchinson estimated that paying a quarter of the $400-a-week earning benefits requested through Trump, 25% of which would come from states, would charge Arkansas $265 million for the other 120,000 people eligible for the benefits of obtaining.
Meanwhile, Arkansas, like many states fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and economic recession, faces a giant budget deficit. The Department of Finance and the State Administration projected a $353 million loss in profits in March.
Hutchinson said one thing he would want an explanation about before implementing the program would be whether the budget used for unemployment benefits would be restored at a later date. As a component of the Democrats’ extensive COVID-19 aid program, they would: the HEROES bill, passed by the House in May, allocates $1 trillion to state and local governments. Unlike state aid under the CARES Act, the package would allow states and municipalities to use the budget to compensate for profit shortfalls.
But White House negotiators, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows rejected the Democrats’ Plan, providing $150 billion to the states in a counterproposal.
The stalemate in the negotiations led Trump to point out a series of moves, an order and three memos, Saturday from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.
Although Trump has touted the benefits of getting $400 a week as “generous,” Hutchinson is the only governor who is less than enthusiastic about the idea.
“We appreciate the White House’s proposals to provide more answers to economic challenges; however, we are involved in the significant administrative burdens and prices that the latter action would impose on the states,” they wrote. “The most productive way forward is for Congress and the Administration to return to the negotiating table and propose a viable solution that provides significant additional relief to American families.”
“The NGA has requested $500 billion in unrestricted state aid and the NGA continues to urge Congress and the White House to succeed in a quick solution to provide immediate assistance to unemployed Americans,” they continued. “This solution avoids additional administrative and tax burdens in states.”
Individually, some Republican governors, in addition to Hutchinson, have expressed doubts about the president’s agenda.
Gov. Jim Justice (R-WV), while doing a song of praise to Trump, added that he hoped the federal government would eventually pay full freight.
“I that the federal government will eventually oppose its position on this factor and that in the end will pay 100 percent full,” justice said Monday. “But we have the cash set aside to work anyway.”
Democratic governors have been direct about the shortcomings of the program.
Gov. Gavin Newsom (left) said the program would cost California $700 million a week.
“There’s no cash in the piggy bank, ” said Newsom. “It just doesn’t exist.”
Cuomo told reporters that the benefits of getting would charge New York $4 billion by the end of the year.
“It only makes a bad scenario worse,” Cuomo said. “When you are in a hole, avoid digging. This executive order only digs the deepest hole.”
“This is feasible in its current form,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY) added. “It’s something no state can afford.”