Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - A provision of the newly adopted 212 billion dollar state budget is 2.1 billion dollars for workers who were ineligible for other federal
and state benefits such as unemployment insurance or stimulus checks.
Proponents of the fund say these workers live in New York, and provide labor and frontline services. They are largely restaurant, grocery store and construction workers and it would put these excluded workers on par with New Yorkers who otherwise qualify for the benefits.
Jimmy Vielkind of the Wall Street Journal says the program is structured with two tiers. Under Tier 1, workers with a taxpayer identification number would be able to receive around $15,600 of benefits. Tier 2 would be for anyone who cannot provide proof of employment prior to the pandemic. Those workers would receive only $3,200.
Critics of the fund say it's not a good use of taxpayer money to raise taxes on the rich and spend it on a program like this.
Republicans, and even some Democrats have denounced the program. Assemblywoman Monica Wallace (D-Cheektowaga) called it an irresponsibile,
misguided use of taxpayer funds. "It lacks adequate safeguards to protect
against fraud and to ensure the appropriate use of taxpayer dollars."
While Wallace says the program may be well intentioned, it's unfair. "This program seeks to put excluded workers on par with New Yorkers who would otherwise qualify for unemployment benefits. "Recipients would not need to jump through the same hoops to ensure entitlement to benefits. For example, unlike traditional unemployment, employees under this program don't need to provide certification showing that they were unemployed every week for which benefits are claimed. Additionally, employees would not need to provide certification of employment from their employer to prove eligibility for Tier II benefits."
In short, Wallace says there is no mechanism for ensuring that an employee was unemployed for the period claimed, and that the employee was eligible to work and seeking employment but could not find any. She also questions whether the employee paid into the unemployment insurance system in their former job.
Assemblyman Jonathan Rivera, (D-Buffalo) voted for the fund. "It's not just undocumented people," said Rivera. "There's a lot of people who have fallen through the cracks, that have been doing hard, hard work and for one reason or another, they have not been able to apply or obtain unemployment benefits."
Rivera went on to say that "at the end of the day, people not making money slows down the economy and we need to move the economy forward."
The Excluded Workers Fund is the first of its kind in the nation.
