Employment Security Commissioners Face Unemployment

South Carolina is again on the verge of running out of money to pay unemployment benefits and Gov. Mark Sanford is threatening to fire Employment Security Commissioners. Gov. Sanford describes the situation as, "Really what amounts to an agency that is out of control."

One reason he's so upset is that the ESC says it needs another federal loan of $170 million because the fund that pays unemployment benefits will run out of money at the end of this week. But the state just got a $146 million loan three weeks ago and that money was supposed to last through March. ESC director Ted Halley says the number of people filing for benefits is simply overwhelming the system and draining its funds. He says the state is now paying out about $20 million a week in unemployment benefits.

But the governor says commissioners have not been sounding the alarm as they should have been about pending problems at the agency. He says there have been signs since 2001 that benefit payments would outstrip unemployment insurance collections. "This has been a storm that has been coming for quite some time. And, as protectors of the unemployed, it would have been incumbent upon them to have made noise for quite some time on the problems inherent in the trend line that they were looking at."

He's also upset, though, that he's been asking for months for more information from the Employment Security Commission and he hasn't gotten it. The state Department of Commerce wants additional data on the state's unemployed so it can target state resources to the areas that need it most.

Gov. Sanford sent a letter to Employment Security Commissioners Thursday telling them, "My patience has run out, as has that of so many across our state. If I don't receive the information enumerated below, I will be forced to relieve you from your positions in the hope that the next round of commissioners could be more responsive."

The letter goes on to spell out exactly what information he wants: the age, gender, race, county of residence and employment, education, industry and occupation of people who've filed for unemployment, along with the specific reason for losing their jobs, whether it's lack of skills, absenteeism, plant closings or temporary work. Everyone will be identified by a unique number that does not reveal their identity or other personal information.

Instead of requesting the $170 million federal loan the ESC has asked for, Gov. Sanford says he'll ask for $25 million to fund unemployment benefits through the end of January. "And I think we really need to do a huddle as unemployed of our state, as business leaders of our state, as political leaders in our state come together and look at what exactly is going over there," the governor says. "Because if not, we'll request another $170 million and it could be another two weeks and they come back again and say, 'We need more money.'"