Gig workers to lose all unemployment benefits in 20 GOP states: You can t prepare for it By Aimee Picchi Unemployment claims hit pandemic low
Selina Smedley said she was expecting to have jobless aid through early September, a $300 weekly boost that has been helping her get by while her Dallas-area cleaning business remains far below pre-pandemic levels. Then Texas Governor Greg Abbott unmoored her by announcing an early end to enhanced jobless benefits.
As of June 26, the 50-year-old Smedley will get cut off from all jobless aid two months before federal funding is due to expire. She is one of almost 1 million self-employed workers who are hurtling toward a benefits cliff next month in the 20 states where Republican governors are shutting off the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program early. Most of the governors cited a desperate need for workers among employers such as restaurants and retailers that are reopening to the public.
The budget approved by the Ohio House of Representatives contains new tax deductions likely costing tens of millions of dollars, as well as restoration of a special-interest sales-tax exemption for investment coins and metal bullion that has been repealed twice earlier by the General Assembly.
In testimony today, Policy Matters Ohio.
Posted April 15, 2021 in Press Releases
Tax plan does nothing for the poorest, could cost double what’s estimated
The 2% income-tax cut the Ohio House Republican majority proposed as part of the two-year state budget would go largely to the most affluent Ohioans, without doing anything to help Ohioans making less than $22,000 a year.
That’s the key conclusion of an analysis prepared for Policy Matters Ohio by the Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit with a sophisticated model of state and local tax systems. The tax cuts also could cost the state double the $380 million legislative staff have estimated over the next two years. Policy Matters Research Director Zach Schiller said the $380 million would be better spent on Ohio’s people and communities. For instance, that could include accelerating implementation of key components of the Fair School Funding Plan, expanding the number of families assisted by the public child care program, boosting
The Looming Showdown Over Unemployment Benefits
Federal benefits are going to expire, and Republican legislatures are looking to make cuts.
By Tara Golshan and Arthur Delaney
Extra federal unemployment benefits are set to expire this year, and Republican state legislatures will be eager to cut benefits further once they do ― unless Democrats in Congress come up with a plan to stop them.
So far this year, Republicans in Tennessee, Iowa and Louisiana have proposed bills to cut down how many weeks jobless Americans can get unemployment pay. These proposed cuts, which GOP legislators say are necessary to shore up unemployment trust funds, could mean an even weaker safety net for millions of Americans for years to come.