BREWER: 'I DON'T WANT TO, BUT LET'S DO THIS'

posted by Michael Chihak

Gov. Jan Brewer penned an opinion piece for today's Arizona Republic calling on the Legislature to come to grips with extending unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless in the state.

"Believe me, extending unemployment assistance isn't something I want to do. In fact, the idea of anyone being on unemployment aid for nearly two full years is contrary to everything I believe as a conservative," Brewer wrote before taking a slap at President Obama's "failure to jump-start the job market."

The governor wants the Legislature to make a one-word change in Arizona's formula for unemployment payments so that 15,000 state residents who have been out of work for 18 months are eligible for another 20 weeks of pay from federal money.

Legislators are reluctant, saying they don't want to add to the federal deficit and they don't want to take an action that could lead people to be less willing to find work.

State law requires people collecting unemployment payments to be actively seeking work and to be ready and willing to accept work if offered.

Stephen Slivinski, an economist with the Goldwater Institute, argued in a blog posting this week that no unemployment extension should be granted until the state audits the system to ensure people are seeking work and to weed out ineligible people.

Brewer makes the same argument that Grand Canyon Institute Chairman George Cunningham made in an Arizona Republic opinion piece earlier this week: that the extended payments would add $3.5 million to the state's economy, at no cost to the state.

Cunningham and Slivinski will make their cases in separate interviews on Friday's Arizona Week, followed by a journalists' panel discussion of the issues.