Gibbons: Jobless benefits at risk

CARSON CITY -- Gov. Jim Gibbons accused legislators Monday of putting jobless benefits for 120,000 Nevadans in jeopardy and pledged to issue an emergency declaration to fix the problem.

Gibbons said he was "stunned that the Legislature would show such callous disregard" for families when its Subcommittee to Review Regulations failed last week to adopt a regulation setting the unemployment tax rates for 2010.

Without the tax rates charged employers in effect, the U.S. Department of Labor could deny as much as $1 billion in loans the state needs to keep giving out unemployment checks starting in January, he stated.

But legislators did not see it that way. Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, said they made it clear during the meeting that they could meet again in December if passage of the regulation was necessary to keep unemployment pay coming.

When asked whether the benefits remain at risk, Employment Security Division Administrator Cindy Jones said Monday that no Nevadans will lose any unemployment benefits.

She said Gibbons in coming days will approve the regulation on an emergency basis, a step recommended by legislators at last week's meeting.

Emergency regulations by law remain in effect for 120 days. Legislators, in the meantime, can meet again and pass the regulation, Jones said.

In a news release, Gibbons said the unemployment tax rates -- which average 1.33 percent on the first $27,000 of each employee's wages but vary from business to business -- were set in October by the Nevada Employment Security Advisory Council.

But Legislative Counsel Brenda Erdoes pointed out that the rates actually are set by Jones, not by the council. The council can only recommend tax rates.

She said the subcommittee decided against adopting the regulation before Jones conducted a public hearing on the proposal. A public hearing is set for Dec. 7.

Townsend said he was surprised by Gibbons' comments. He said Republicans and Democrats on the panel decided it would be inappropriate to adopt the regulation before Jones' hearing.

But Daniel Burns, Gibbons' communication director, contended Monday that legislators risked some unemployed Nevadans' ability to put food on the table.

He said that in the past 75 years the employment security administrator never has reversed the council's tax rate recommendation. Jones herself said in October that she would keep the 1.33 percent unemployment tax rate.

On Monday Jones said she attended the subcommittee hearing last week and was prepared to request "pre-approval" of the regulation, but committee members did not ask her to speak.

Townsend said Assemblyman Marcus Conklin, D-Las Vegas, the panel's chairman, can schedule a telephone meeting after Dec. 7 to approve the regulation.