Here & Now

Rep. Jerry O'Connor on Unemployment Benefit Requirements

Frederica Freyberg:

Following the passage of a non-binding referendum on the statewide ballot in the April 4 election, where more than three quarters of voters supported a question about government benefits that read, shall able-bodied childless adults be required to look for work in order to receive taxpayer funded welfare benefits? Assembly Republicans this week passed a slate of bills, mostly aimed at unemployment benefits. The six bills include tightening unemployment insurance, work search requirements, and drug testing, as well as tightening BadgerCare eligibility. For more, we go to one of the authors, Republican Representative Jerry O’Connor. Thanks very much for joining us.

Jerry O’Connor:

Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:

So why are these provisions in these bills needed?

Jerry O’Connor:

I come from the private sector. I’m a first-term representative. I came out of a position as a community bank president after many years. I really look at this as going back and looking at a series of policies as the private sector would do and saying, okay, we have some issues here. So if we’re going to update these issues, let’s take a look at a broader section and see what we can do to improve them, especially when we get to unemployment. That fund is funded by employers, and to that extent, they’re the ones that bear the burden. At the state level, we have a fiduciary responsibility to make sure we have the most effective and cost-efficient program available and we just have some areas we need to tighten up.

Frederica Freyberg:

Overall, is it your sense that the 25,000 people who are currently getting unemployment benefits right now is too many people?

Jerry O’Connor:

I wouldn’t say that. I would say that, as in most things, we create laws, policies, and statutes to address a few in our society. Maybe the best example is when you go to the airport and you go through the metal detectors and you wait in long lines, not because everyone is a terrorist, but because you’re trying to figure out, we need to weed out certain or identify certain characteristics that are a problem. And that really is what this bill does. So I would spend less time trying to figure out who doesn’t qualify in terms of personality or characteristics, but it’s more important we have laws in place and we want to enforce them as they exist or improve them as they need to be.

Frederica Freyberg:

Is the message that people on unemployment insurance are gaming the system, as one of your colleagues said on the floor, or lazy?

Jerry O’Connor:

I can’t speak for the representative. I would speak from what I get feedback from the general public, and that would be over a period of time that they’re concerned that we spend a lot of money at the state level or at the federal level, where the money is unaccountable. We don’t know if it’s working, we don’t know if it’s going to the right places. We don’t know if the agencies are applying the law as intended. The drug testing bill would be part of that that was passed in the last budget bill, but it has not been implemented. I can tell you the general public does not want to invest money where you have people using the system without using that system to get to the next level, to be employed, to gainfully engage in the society around us in that manner.

Frederica Freyberg:

One of the bills, as you know, looks to acquire more audits of whether claimants are doing the required number of work searches per week to get their payment. That’s four per week, including declining job interviews or not showing up for one. According to the Department of Workforce Development, the agency does do these weekly random kind of audits, but in your mind, that’s not enough oversight?

Jerry O’Connor:

Well, it’s not addressing the issue. Part of that one goes back to ghosting. Ghosting is a matter where someone applies for a job, sends in an application, notifies the state that I took care of that, but when you go back to the employer, the employer is saying, wait a minute. There was an example, I believe it’s Ariens Corporation. They’re in east-central Wisconsin. They had in excess of 400 people that sent in an application for employment, but when they responded back to set up an interview or conduct one over the phone or in person, they could not even get a single response from those people. That’s in a one-year period. Or they had appointments set up, and I believe there’s 125 appointments, people simply didn’t show up. Now, if you’re the employer, this is a high-cost exercise. Our human resource departments in any sector are taking a lot of expense to employ people, so this is one of those issues. This is feedback from employers saying this is costing us a lot of money, so I don’t think the requirements for the job search have been effective.

Frederica Freyberg:

Would you just as soon do away with the whole unemployment insurance program?

Jerry O’Connor:

Absolutely not. Again, this is — the goal of these bills is to identify those people that are really not qualified to be on unemployment because we have that as an issue. Again, that’s the minority. We also have people that — they’re not out there truly looking or working for a job. Now, come back to the basis of your question. I believe a scriptural principle that says true religion is taking care of widows and orphans. That’s taking care of people that don’t have the capacity to take care of all of their needs, and I believe there is an absolute place for government, but I believe it needs to be exercised wisely, and we live in a time where you have to put more restrictions or restraints or accountability, is probably my best word, in place in order to make that work to its optimum level

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. Representative Jerry O’Connor, thanks very much for joining us.

Jerry O’Connor:

All right. Thank you. Enjoy your day.