After you have heard Speaker Howell out today, look to see if he has sufficiently answered why Virginia is going to lose out on our own money. Bob McDonnell and his Republican friends in the House of Delegates turned away $125 million in stimulus money. This money was going to come to Virginia and it was going to help two classes of people. It would have made people who are looking for part-time work and people who were looking for job training eligible for unemployment benefits. Both, Terry McAuliffe believes, are very laudable goals. Another Terrybyte: Why don't we want people looking for part-time work and why don't we want people to get job training?…Bob McDonnell says, "Oh, it would have been a big tax on business." That is not true! We would have had exclusive use of that money for seven straight years. Seven years of your money would have helped 7,500 people…wouldn't have cost businesses a penny…You folks should be outraged about this!In the eighth year, if we didn't like it, we could have changed the legislation and ended it. Now, as McAuliffe points out, our money is going to Texas, California, Missouri, and even Republican South Carolina.
Currently unemployment insurance in Virginia is running $98. The national average is $258. That is pretty reasonable. If we had accepted this change, the increase for every business would have been $4 per employee. So that would have been $102. But if after seven years we didn't want to add the $4, then all we would have had to do is change the law. Seems like pretty flimsy strings to our own money, Speaker…Bob...
Cross posted at Blue Commonwealth
