While additional unemployment assistance for Kansas residents is now being assured, federal financial assistance for the state as a whole still remains an uncertainty.
During her daily news conference, Thursday afternoon Governor Laura Kelly announced the state’s federal pandemic unemployment compensation had gone live.
The compensation provides an additional weekly $600 payment for unemployment insurance claimants as Part of the Federal Cares Act. According to Kelly the Kansas Department of Labor anticipated dispursing over $3.4 million in benefits Thursday.
While that money has been guaranteed, Governor Kelly says there is a lot up in the air at this time regarding potential federal assistance to help the state “fill revenue back holes” which have developed due to actions taken at the state level in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The governor’s comments come after consensus revenue estimates showed the state is poised to see a $1.3 billion deficit over the next two fiscal years.
Governor Kelly says the federal assistance is imperative now more than it was during the great recession between 2007 and 2009. The reason being is the state is in a much different position than it was back then due to the financial impacts caused by state tax cuts in 2012 and 2013.
This particular topic has seen much discussion across the country as of late and gained even more attention recently following statements from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who made it abundantly clear he does not agree with providing “federal bailouts” to state’s who have been heavily impacted financially by the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, McConnell feels impacted states should be seeking bankruptcy protections going so far as to say he “would certainly be in favor of allowing states to use the bankruptcy route, It saves some cities. And there’s no good reason for it not to be available,” according to ABC News.
These comments and others have drawn heavy criticism from state leaders such as New York Governor Anthony Cuomo who, during a recent briefing in Albany, NY, referred to McConnell’s suggestion as “one of the dumb ideas of all time.”
Governor Kelly is scheduled to continue her daily news briefings at 2 pm Friday. You can listen to the conference in its entirety on KVOE 1400 am, 96.9 fm and KVOE.com.
