Governor Perry has done the right thing for employers and employees, and Texas’ economy, by rejecting the mandate-heavy UI portion of the federal stimulus package.
The package would force Texas down a costly path stifling, not stimulating, economic and employment growth. Taxpayers and small businesses would for many years bear the heavy burden of radical changes to unemployment insurance policies that the administration requires for Texas get short-term federal funding. The costs are simply too high.
For example, the federal funds would require that Texas keep paying out unemployment funds even if the recipients aren’t looking for full-time work. The mandates would also force payments to be made even to people who quit their job for personal situations.
Texas taxpayers don’t want, and cannot afford, to have Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid turning the Lone Star State into California or Illinois. The radical policy shifts they would force upon us would make it harder for Texans to find work, increase the cost of doing business, and restrain the kind of economic growth needed to employee, and empower, Texans.
