New data from the Labor Department show that “the number of people receiving unemployment benefits has reached an all-time high.” For the week ending Jan. 17, the figure hit 4.78 million, the highest since the records began in 1967. The AP notes that the results “were worse than analysts expected.”

After spending a relatively successful and satisfying year as an Account Executive with Welcome Wagon I was laid off the week before Christmas. The layoff affected hundreds of employees corporate wide and was unexpected to say the least. I received a small severance package and will be eligible for unemployment benefits in February. I am now one of 207,171 people who are unemployed in South Carolina, 25,600 of us lost our jobs last month. South Carolina’s unemployment rate now stands at 9.5%, the third highest in the nation.

In light of these facts you can understand why I am deeply concerned about our bankrupt State Employment Security Commission trust fund. Thanks to a string of poorly thought out, politically motivated decisions by the state legislature and our governor, the fund is broke. Instead of springing into action with a plan however our governor and state lawmakers are playing the blame game. According to today’s Greenville News Governor Sanford opposes the idea of a stimulus plan to help states so he hasn’t decided if he will apply for federal funds to prop up the state’s Employment Security Commission. The governor did belatedly decided to apply for an emergency loan at the 11^th hour to keep unemployment checks coming for now. The Governor has been demanding an audit of the ESC, implying that the agency is poorly run and in conspiracy with more than 200,000 slackers to rip off the state. The Greenville News reports that the chairman of the Senate Labor, Commerce and Industry committee, Senator Greg Ryberg called for the jobs of the Executive Director of the ESC along with the commissioners, “I don’t trust the agency in the numbers that they give us,” “I don’t trust the agency as to whether or not they know where the money is. I don’t trust the agency in whether or not the people collecting (benefits) are qualified to be collecting. I think the culture over there is to issue checks, not to get people back to work.”

I’m worried about Senator Ryberg, I’m concerned that he may be suffering from a form of dementia or took a blow to the head that affected his short term memory. Here’s some facts for you; The Greenville News reports that the Executive Director of the Employment Security Commission Roosevelt “Ted” Halley, says that he warned legislators three years ago that the state’s unemployment trust fund was running dry, because payroll taxes were not being collected at a high enough rate to keep up. Halley tells the Greenville News that lawmakers sat on their hands because they didn’t want to raise taxes. “It was a tax increase and nobody wanted to address it.”’Rep. Dan Cooper, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee confirmed that he was briefed by ESC officials about the problem.’ “I don’t think there has been a willingness to raise any taxes.”

So…how did a fund that once held in excess of $800 million go broke? According to a recent Greenville News editorial, the problem dates back to 1997, when with the economy soaring, legislators gave state businesses what was then called a one-year tax break of almost $53 million by dipping into the ESC’s rainy day fund for unemployment benefits. The agency’s director at the time opposed the move, arguing that the ESC’s reserve fund should be $1.7 billion instead of the seemingly high reserve of $600 million at the time. He wanted to continue socking away money during the good economic times so that the reserve fund could last through 18 months of a severe recession. However he was told that the high unemployment of the 1970’s and early 1980’s most likely would not return.” The legislature then proceeded to pass House Bill 3118 in 1999 that effectively lowered the tax. The ESC has been draining the trust fund since 2001.

Genius…reward businesses with a tax cut during boom times, bankrupting your jobless fund so working folks get the shaft when times are tough. That’s our South Carolina legislature in all of their party pandering glory right there.

Now the real genius of this whole debacle is how Sanford and Ryberg and the rest of the covey of liars are dealing with the crisis at hand. Instead of sitting down with the ESC agency folks and the commissioners to pour over the numbers and try to figure out a plan, they are so busy blaming everyone but themselves they have little time to actually do their jobs effectively. Ryberg claims he doesn’t trust the ESC, well I don’t trust a liar and he’s either had a memory lapse or is lying when he says, he was unaware of the problem until last fall. ESC officials claim that Ryberg was briefed on the dwindling jobless fund last March. He also should have a grasp of the effects of the legislation passed in 2001 lowering the payroll tax and forcing the ESC to begin drawing funds from reserve to pay unemployment benefits.

I’ve got a really simple solution to part of this problem…if Ryberg and Sanford truly believe that more than 200,000 people in South Carolina are ripping off this state, I suggest they get their asses down to the nearest Employment Security Commission Office and talk to the folks in line, because there’s always a line. The last time I was there I spoke with a 50 year old construction worker who had been unemployed for 9 months after losing a hand on the job site. It would appear that no one wants to hire an old blue collar guy who’s disabled.

I guess if you live in a bubble of money and privilege it’s easy for Mark Sanford and Greg Ryberg to be so casual about people’s lives. I personally know many people who’ve been out of work for nearly a year, worrying about losing their homes and cars, having to pull their kids out of college, draining their 401 K’s or what’s left of them. Some of these folks are spending 10 hours a day looking for work, others are depressed and hopeless. Trust me no one is living large off their $250.00 a week but I guess you would have to have a sense of compassion or live in the real world to understand that.