David Schapira, D-Tempe, was 100 percent wrong about unemployment benefits in his guest editorial ("AZ Republicans putting ideology ahead of problems", June 10). I've owned an actual bricks-and-mortar business of 10 employees for 14 years. Employers like me pay 100 percent of unemployment insurance taxes in Arizona, not Schapira's mythical employees "paying into the system."
Unemployment insurance is an insurance product where experience ratings determine my business's relative tax vs. other employers' taxes. The more my former employees draw unemployment, the higher my set-aside rates are. Employers never see that money again, regardless of how well we take care of our employees. Moreover, employers like me pay unemployment to both Arizona (dedicated toward the first 26 weeks of benefits) and the federal government. Combined, Arizona and the feds charge employers more than 3 percent on the first $7,000 of pay for each of their employees.
It's true, extended benefits currently are being paid from the feds' general fund - which these days means more debt; but how that debt is reimbursed is still "our problem" as businesses and taxpayers. We don't differentiate between a dollar taken as federal tax vis-a-vis state tax as the governor and legislators do. They seem to think if it doesn't come out of state funds, it must be free, right? Bottom line: Keeping Arizonans on unemployment prolongs the ill effects and adversity of our sick market. It aggravates job recovery by spiraling down a deepening debt which makes recovery even more uncertain. David Schapira should recognize who's really paying for these benefits instead of making specious claims about pots of "free money."
Wendy Rogers, Tempe
Rich posted at 1:46 pm on Wed, Jun 15, 2011.
Every small business person knows this, to the rest it's free because our wallets are the government's ATM. When they run out of our money and start on general funds, it isn't unemployment, it's welfare. Shapira thinks it's free, nothing is free, it's a question of who pays in the end. If they can play with this type of money, there are a thousand ways they can help small business to start, grow, hire. But they're looking for big businesses to bribe with tax givebacks, even though small business holds over half the jobs. With ideas like Shapiro's it isn't going to get any better. Eventually the ATMs the politicos seem to think we are, will run out of the cash to advance on their over limit credit cards.
Dale Whiting posted at 2:18 pm on Wed, Jun 15, 2011.
How to avoid paying unemployment premiums, FICA, etc.? Contract services. Where there's a will, there's a way. But if an employer controls too much of the way the services are rendered, they get caught and fined.
hartwigryan posted at 9:25 pm on Wed, Jun 15, 2011.
“These dollars come from the federal government, from a pot of money that Arizona workers have paid into for years.” -David Schapira
The founders of our country hoped to have the federal government strike a balance between fixing society’s problems and conserving our liberties. If I can’t put food on the table, should my employer be responsible? If I can’t work, how much responsibility should the government assume?
(See http://ryanhartwig.org/book-review-and-then-the-roof-caved-in for some discussion about the government’s involvement in the mortgage industry)
If I’ve paid into a system whose ideologies don’t coincide with the founders of America, then should I continue to demand the existence of this system?
“Bottom Line: Keeping Arizonans on Unemployment prolongs the ill effects and adversity of our sick market. It aggravates job recovery by spiraling down a deepening debt which makes recovery even more uncertain.”- Wendy Rogers
Let’s be wise enough to realize the source of the system, the beliefs it represents, and treat the source of the problem, not the symptoms.
samkat posted at 7:31 pm on Thu, Jun 16, 2011.
So, Dale, you are saying that the contractors do not pay the same taxes? Somebody has to pay the taxes. Are you a public employee or a retired public employee?
Leon Ceniceros posted at 11:25 am on Fri, Jun 17, 2011.
IS THERE SUCH A THING AS A ............."DEFICIT-DENIAL GENE"
SOME BRAIN-E-AK OUT THERE SHOULD DO HIS/HER DOCTORAL THESIS ON....DEMOCRAT POLITICIANS REFUSE TO SEE..."RED INK"
MAYBE IT'S THOSE ...SAN FRANCISCO HIPPIE "JOHN LENNON" ROUND GLASSES WITH THE .........."ROSY-PINK" LENS...........THAT CHANGE THE ....$14,000,000,000,000.00 "RED INK DEFICIT"..........INTO A ...."SURPLUS".....AND THAT'S WHY THESE.......DEMOCRATS STILL THINK THAT THEY CAN HAND OUT..........1960'S ...."SKY'S THE LIMIT" SOCIAL PROGRAMS...IN THE HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS....LIKE IT WAS .....CONFETTI.