By Nick Cahill
SACRAMENTO (CN) Inheriting a mounting bureaucratic disaster that has floated lifelines to inmates but left newly jobless Californians broke, lawmakers on Thursday called for a reboot of the state’s Employment Development Department.
Pressed to act after a series of
audits revealed inmates and fraudsters took the department for at least $10 billion during the pandemic, a group of Assembly members say sweeping changes are needed to make the troubled department functional once again.
“We want to fix it,” said Assemblyman Rudy Salas, D-Bakersfield. “EDD needs to be reformed, it needs to more responsive to Californians especially during a time of need.”
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The California Employment Development Department. (Courthouse News photo / Nick Cahill)
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CN) Inheriting a mounting bureaucratic disaster that has floated lifelines to inmates but left newly jobless Californians broke, lawmakers on Thursday called for a reboot of the state’s Employment Development Department.
Pressed to act after a series of criminal investigations and audits revealed inmates and fraudsters took the department for at least $10 billion during the pandemic, a group of Assembly members say sweeping changes are needed to make the troubled department functional once again.
“We want to fix it,” said Assemblyman Rudy Salas, D-Bakersfield. “EDD needs to be reformed, it needs to more responsive to Californians especially during a time of need.”
The California Employment Development Department. (Courthouse News photo / Nick Cahill)
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CN) A spectacular failure at the basics paying legitimate claims for unemployment benefits while weeding out fraud has left California legislators skeptical that the Employment Development Department will be able to handle larger headaches facing Californians as tax season looms.
“I have received countless calls from constituents who are scared to death because their unemployment was taken by somebody else and that they are going to receive a 1099-G,” Assemblymember Jim Patterson, R-Fresno, told top EDD officials Wednesday.
“You’re gonna be flooded with Californians who are going to be seeing what their taxes are gonna to look like. And yet they either didn’t file or had their unemployment taken by fraudsters.”
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