By FITSNews || A lot of South Carolina businesses don’t know it yet, but they’re about to be on the hook for a $900 million tax hike.
The only question: Who’s going to bear the brunt of the cost?
Since the now-defunct S.C. Employment Security Commission decided to rack up a $900 million debt with the federal government over the last two years to pay for unemployment benefits, it now falls on South Carolina businesses to cover this gap – which let’s face it, is a total crock of sh*t. After all, it’s not their fault that this is (was) one of the most corrupt and dysfunctional state agencies in South Carolina history – which is saying something – or that on top of years of gross mismanagement the decision was made to borrow money it didn’t have to pay out benefits that in many cases it shouldn’t have been handing out.
Seriously? Why should businesses have to pick up this ridiculously high tab for government incompetence?
Anyway, the S.C. Chamber of Communists … err, Commerce is backing a bill by State Senator Greg Ryberg that would spread the $900 million obligation among employers on the basis of what percentage of employees they laid off, although opponents say that Ryberg’s legislation unfairly penalizes companies that have laid off more workers.
In fact, Ryberg’s legislation is being challenged by Sen. Billy O’Dell, who is sponsoring an amendment that its supporters say would “more equitably” spread the pain. Of course, businesses large and small would suffer equally under both plans, as the current structure makes no distinction for the size of a company, just the percentage of employees it laid off – and ninety-five percent of businesses in South Carolina employ fifty or fewer workers.
That means no matter how you slice it, this bill is going to have a devastating effect on the state’s business climate – sucking a billion dollars out of the private sector at a time when it can least afford to shoulder such a burden.
WEB EXTRA
S. 1353
By Jon May 3, 2010 at 9:37 pm
State Treasurer Converse Chellis sat on the Labor, Commerce and Industry Committee (the committee that legislatively oversaw the operations and budget of the ESC). He said nothing as the agency lost over a billion dollars and now he wants to be elected to a full term as Treasurer.
He was furnished the audits and either never read them or read them and failed to act.
If only Chellis had raised the alarm. We taxpayers are now forced to pay for his failure to act.
By Wake-up Call May 3, 2010 at 9:54 pm
Having been a previous employee of the SCESC, myself and others used to constantly tell employers to report to fact finding hearings and speak up for themselves in order to prevent deadbeats, alcoholics, violent offenders, drug abusers etc from getting unemployment benefits. We also told employers to document, document, document incidents with employees, just in case they ever had to let them go. Many employers did as we suggested but just as many more didn’t and many never even showed up for the hearings, choosing instead to complete a piece of paper and mail or fax it in to represent their side of the story. That just wasn’t enough. It ended up with many of those claimants being awarded benefits. If the employers had heeded our advice, they would be sitting a better position right now. You can’t just sit on your behind, do nothing and expect the outcome to be any different. Now it looks as though you waited too long. Most, not many, but most people drawing unemployment benefits should not be but the employer failed to present their case, therefore giving the claims representative only the claimants version of the story to go with. If I were any employer, I would be documenting everytime my employee arrived to work 5 minutes late, took longer lunch breaks than allowed, failed to call in or show up for work, document number of absences, just to name a few and I would attend EVERY SINGLE FACT FINDING scheduled with all of my evidence as to why I let them go. It’s called CYA. If you want to bitch and complain now, you waited too long…..you should have acted and spoke up long ago. It’s just plain wrong that the employers who are barely holding on now are the ones to suffer for all the deadbeats to collect money they don’t deserve but you have to advocate for yourselves or nothing will change. Take it to the steps of Columbia and Washington if needed. Band together and do what you have to do to save your businesses or you all will suffer and many may not survive. Remember, Columbia SCESC WANTS to give your money away and award every claimant they can ui benefits because it means more federal funding for them. Speak up people if you want to see change!!!!!!
By Calhoun Fawls May 4, 2010 at 5:36 am
odell’s mop business has laid off a good many people over the years. What a self serving good ole boy Democrat.
By John Steinberger May 4, 2010 at 7:40 am
The best solution to this is to pass the South Carolina FairTax Act (H.3992/S-902). It will immediately create the environment which empowers consumers to spend and employers to hire. Businesses and wealthy retirees will cross state lines to enjoy the South Carolina Tax Advantage. SC FairTax = Jobs!
By Tim May 4, 2010 at 8:17 am
What’s your solution? Should the state pay it back?
Also, NFIB supports the Ryberg legislation.
By Brian29229 May 4, 2010 at 9:22 am
What a ridiculous idea. Does Ryberg believe that businesses laid people off simply for spite? Odds are overwhelming that businesses that had to conduct large layoffs did so because they were in trouble. Those businesses are very likely still in difficulty today as there has been no real recovery to speak of. So naturally, let’s penalize them for trying to survive and hit them disproportionately with a tax.
Maybe Ryberg would have preferred those businesses to simply shut down rather than trying to survive this economic storm. If his tax passes, he’ll surely get his wish in a number of cases
By Liberty For Me May 4, 2010 at 9:49 am
If we have to mandate something. How about we have people pay into their own (emergency savings)acccount..they lose their job they get the money and its done.Costs no one anything
By walter carr May 4, 2010 at 11:03 am
Fits, The avoidable situation resulting from the gross mismanagement of the former SC-ESC is attempting to be addressed way of S.1353. Senator Ryberg and his Senate LCI Committee have come up with what what could be an equitable way to work our way out of the deep hole created by the way the system has been working and most especially that bill is structured to capture more revenue from those employers who have been gameing the UI system for all too long. The “gamers” are seeking to ammend the bill in such a way that it will allow them to continue with their unworthy practices, practices that has left other businesses picking up the tab.Those of us in the small business community tend to go to great lengths to avoid layoffs, some employers forgo paying theirself in order to avoid layoffs. However, there are employers who go thru frequent hiring and layoff cycles and during the layoff cycles their employees are supping at the public trough. It is those employers that S.1353 is intended to cause to pay their fair share for their use of the UI system. Our states leading small business advocacy orgainzation, The National Federation of Independent Business-SC has been deeply involved with that legislation and is in support of S.1353, providing however, that it is not ammended in such a way that the array system is “socialized” in favor of those companies that have a history of gaming the UI system. Walter Carr,Chairman NFIB-SC Leadership Council
By JDC May 5, 2010 at 1:10 pm
Walter Carr summed it up pretty well. Thanks for the correct insight
By Joey June 16, 2010 at 11:21 pm
Boo hoo; poor businesses! If they’d get off their asses and hire more people we wouldn’t be in this mess. I have no sympathy for them.