Perry rejects $555 million in federal stimulus money
By ALAN BERNSTEIN
Rick Perry today told the federal government that Texas doesn’t want $555 million to expand benefits for the unemployed in exchange for widening the program to include part-time workers.
The Legislature can decide to accept the money, but Perry said the state has repeatedly rejected the idea of paying unemployment to part-time workers.
The Legislature is controlled by Perry’s fellow Republicans.
The money would go instead to other states, according to federal officials. But Perry told reporters in Houston today that this did not mean that tax payments by Texans would leave the state.
The $555 million is offered to Texas under the so-called federal stimulus legislation recently signed by President Barack Obama.
Perry became the second governor in the nation to reject the unemployment benefit expansion.
Gov. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., did so on Wednesday.
Perry announced his rejection of the funds at Bering’s Hardware near the Galleria, saying that store owners would be "on the hook" for higher unemployment payroll taxes if the state were to accept the federal money.
Richard Shaw, spokesman for the local AFL-CIO, attended the announcement and said Perry was turning his back on workers who have paid taxes and should be entitled to unemployment benefits now that they have lost their jobs.
Perry said he was unsure how much more a business like Bering’s, which employs 170 full-time and part-time workers at two stores, would have to pay under the federal guidelines.
August Bering V said it would cost the company about an extra $12,000 annually.
But, Perry said, the increases would eventually lead to higher prices on consumer products.
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