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Job seekers criticize Senate's failure to extend unemployment benefits
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John Locher/LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Eugene Turner stands at the Nevada JobConnect office on Maryland Parkway near Desert Inn Road on Friday. Turner's unemployment benefits will end in 10 weeks. » Buy this photo
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Jessie Gallardo, 59, surfs the Internet at Nevada JobConnect in Las Vegas on Friday afternoon. Gallardo's unemployment benefits will stop in six weeks. He has been unemployed for 16 months. John Locher/LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL » Buy this photo
Eugene Turner has a word or two for U.S. senators who voted Thursday against a $109 billion bill that would have extended emergency unemployment benefits for job seekers like himself.
The 58-year-old journeyman electrician who has been out of work for more than a year will stop receiving unemployment checks in 10 weeks.
"They have no heart for the public -- the working man," Turner said Friday at the Nevada JobConnect office on Maryland Parkway near Desert Inn Road, where people were waiting to use computers.
Turner, who moved here from Los Angeles six weeks ago looking for work, said he's scared about how he's going to pay rent when his government assistance runs out.
"My bills ain't going to stop in 10 weeks," he said, shaking his head.
Jerry Medina, an unemployed bartender who just received the last of 26 weeks of state unemployment benefits and was searching for a job at the jammed JobConnect office in Carson City, stated things in stronger terms.
"They are destroying my life," Medina said. "I don't know what I am going to do. What they have done is a total disgrace. Those politicians are scum."
The bill, which fell three votes short of passage, would have allowed jobless people to receive as many as 73 weeks of additional emergency benefits after they get 26 weeks of benefits from the state.
As a result of the bill's rejection, 1,600 unemployed Nevadans won't be receiving another check, and that number will increase dramatically in coming months, according to Mae Worthey, a spokeswoman for the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation.
She said 70,000 Nevadans now are receiving federally-paid benefits under five different programs approved by Congress. Once they finish their current extension program -- none lasts longer than 20 weeks -- they won't receive more benefits.
"There is really not much they can do," Worthey said. "The social service programs will be flooded. It is very sad."
Cindy Jones, the administrator of the Employment Security Division, said there is still hope that the Senate will relent and benefits will be extended. She said her staff will continue to take claims for extended benefits with the hope that an extension passes soon.
"As always, we encourage job seekers to visit a JobConnect office for employment and training services and referrals to potential job openings," Jones said. "Other than that, they would need to seek assistance with other local and state social service agencies."
Nevada has the highest unemployment rate in the country at 14 percent; 189,300 people were out of work in May.
Many unemployed people already have exhausted the maximum possible 99 weeks of benefits, still are jobless and haven't gotten a check for months.
About 120,000 residents now are receiving benefits under either a state or federal program, according to Worthey. About 69,000 unemployed people already must get by without a check.
Those denied jobless benefits shouldn't expect any help from the state, according to Gov. Jim Gibbons' spokesman, Daniel Burns. He said the state, which is having a tough time dealing with its own fiscal crisis, is not in a position to provide additional benefits.
"This is a 100 percent federal manner," he said. "The governor has been to JobConnect offices. He has seen the faces of these people. You can't go to a JobConnect office and tell these people it is their fault. Some of the people in Congress need to go talk to people in unemployment offices. They might feel a lot different."
Burns suggested people losing unemployment benefits call their representatives in Congress.
As it is now, the Nevada Employment Security Division must borrow from the federal Department of Labor just to pay the 26 weeks of state benefits that laid-off workers receive before getting federal extended benefits.
Worthey said that loan is $300 million and could reach $1 billion by the end of the year. Unless Congress changes the law, the state ultimately must pay back this loan.
Unemployed people are required to call the Employment Security Division once a week. Worthey said they will be told when they will receive their final checks.
Jessie Gallardo, 59, was surfing the Internet looking for work Friday afternoon at the JobConnect in Las Vegas. His last job was for the Wynn and Encore cleaning pools. His unemployment benefits will run out in six weeks.
He said he's not panicking because he's got some money saved up, although "It's not going to last forever."
Gallardo considers himself lucky because he doesn't have a wife or children to support. He said if he can't find work soon he might try his luck out of state.
He said the last 16 months without a job have been difficult for him mentally.
"To me, it's like welfare," he said of collecting unemployment pay. "But I ain't going to run it down because it's money in my pocket."
One successful job seeker at the JobConnect office in Carson City offered a grim prediction of Nevada's future, if the government doesn't resume benefits.
"We are going to have tent city, long lines at welfare offices, bread lines before long," said Keith Montegna.
He said that after 10 months of looking, including moving from California to Michigan and then Minnesota and finally to Carson City, he found two warehouse jobs on the same day.
"They set the pay," said Montegna, who said he had been making $63,000 a year working in a warehouse but now will settle for $14 an hour.
"A lot of people think going on unemployment is like taking a vacation. I lost a lot of pride taking food stamps. ... It is pretty scary being without a job."
Contact Capital Bureau Chief Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901. Contact reporter Antonio Planas at aplanas@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4638.
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The reason unemployment benefits were not extended is because unfortunate American individuals (many who have looked for work regularly -- and usually overlooked for illegal aliens who will work for less than min wage) are not "too big to fail" Only banks and big corporations are worthy of assistance from our government. DUMP HARRY REID!!!
If the people reelect Reid,Obamas point man,he will push for amnesty for the illegals.Then see howw many jobs there will be in Vegas.The only one getting rich here is the REID family.
How long exactly do these people think benefits should be extended? You want them for years, it can't happen. At least the the Republican have the guts to do right.
The poeple mentioned here won't vote, they won't make the effort. Look in the paper, as long as there are jobs list I don't buy the crap that they cannot get jobs. They just don't want to do them when they can sit home and get a check. Welfare stated that way, now you have generations that have never held a job, thank the democrats for that too.
Lets see I am 63 years old I have never been unemployed in my life, I live in the state with the highest unemployment and have been out of work now for 6 months. I have a handicapped daughter that needs 24 hour care I was going to work till I died I did everything right in my life as far as working goes never missed any days of work and now because of these Bankers that made bad loans I can't find work anywhere! There are a lot of hardworking folks out of work , that need to go back to work, you tell me where I can find a job, when no one is hiring.
It's nice to be on the other side of the fence, but if you were on my side you all would be singing a different tune!
I can't feel all that bad for an unemployed person who moves to Las Vegas to find a job. Didn't they do any kind of research at all?
All the unemployed should go to Mexico and trash everything. If I walk into an establishment and see a Mexican cooking or doing anything, I will leave, DAM those illegals.
Reno ... good post, funny as heck!
Well one thing is for certain, everyone profiled here will be voting for Harry Reid come November.
What's sickening is that this country is full of people that are supposed to be leaders, or at least not inhibitors of making this country a better place for all of us. What's sickening is that instead of using American taxpayer money to do good in this country, some politicians in this country see a better use for that money elsewhere. When more than 3 TRILLION dollars can be sent overseas fighting a war against sanity WITHOUT A PEEP RAISED BY THOSE CLAIMING TO BE SO CONCERNED ABOUT THE DEFICIT, and about the American taxpayer, BUT WHEN IT COMES TO MONEY BEING SPENT IN THIS COUNTRY IT BECOMES AN ISSUE, that is dirty, corrupt, politics and the entire country needs to see it for what it is. When the republican party, the party who for 8 long and expensive years told the American public to EAT THEIR DUST while they SPENT OVER 4 TRILLION DOLLARS in other countries have the cahones to come to this country, and vote against AMERICANS RECEIVING UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS BECAUSE OF THE PIDDLING 40 Billion dollars that these critical benefits will cost there is SOMETHING SERIOUSLY WRONG WITH THIS COUNTRY. In a day and age when you can't get three people to agree that its daylight out at noon, to believe that 40 purportedly well educated men can STAND TOGETHER CONSISTENTLY IN A 41 VOTE BLOCK, and block legislation in this country for ANY REASON OTHER THAN POLITICS is retarded. These obstructionist, ANTI AMERICAN TRAITORS must be identified and targeted AT THE BALLOT BOX for defeat. There is no other way.
Remember in November my friends.
This is Sickening. Whining about your government check and complaining about the senators for not exrtending your benefits.
How low we have come since Obummer came to power. it should not be about hand outs, it should be about JOBS!! Like the teleprompter president promised (like so many of his failed promises) But he and Reid have you all wanting handouts instead of JOBS,