While Kentucky's senior senator, Republican Mitch McConnell, is drawing red lines over more assistance to the states trying to stay afloat in the coronavirus crisis, the governor, Democrat Andy Beshear, is making sure the state's unemployed get all the assistance possible. That's led to a third of Kentucky's workforce filing for unemployment, the largest share of workers doing so in any state.
"The state has bent over backwards to build out as much capacity as they could," said Michael Gritton, executive director for KentuckianaWorks, a workforce center in the Louisville area that helps connect people to jobs, education, and training. It also helps them get the unemployment help they need which has been made easier because Beshear has made it a focus. The state has waived both waiting periods and the requirements that people be actively searching for work in order to receive assistance and was one of the first to make sure that gig workers and self-employed contract workers also qualified. "We have the most claims because we have been the most aggressive at trying to help out those that are struggling," Beshear told the Wall Street Journal in an interview.
McConnell has to go. Please give $1 to our nominee fund to help Democrats and end McConnell's career as majority leader.
"As the federal government has offered more flexibility—and in fact more dollars—to help people get by, I want to make sure that my people here in Kentucky have access to that." Providing that access included increasing the number of the state's staff who administer unemployment claims from just 12 to 1,000. Those staffers can work from home, with phone calls from people seeking assistance routed to their homes. The state now has about 100,000 people receiving pandemic unemployment insurance.
That's not all Beshear has accomplished. He's kept cases relatively low in the state by closing down as early as mid-March, starting with dine-in restaurants, gyms, salons, etc. Those are going to be among the last businesses the state will allow to reopen, as well. The system has had strains, with some claims from March still not processed and some approved claims not yet being paid.
The state could undoubtedly use some help in getting this worked out. Help that McConnell doesn't want to provide, not without fulfilling the wishes of big employers who want to be able to force their workers back on the job, with minimal protections.