Thanks to Todd Johnson for sending us this.
By THE OWENSBORO BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION TRADES COUNCIL
At a time when the number of COVID-19 virus cases and deaths are rising dramatically across Kentucky, it is embarrassing and destructive for Republican politicians like Matt Castlen, Robbie Mills to try and use the pandemic to deceive the public and score political points. Their Op-Ed published last month is filled with inaccuracies and out-right lies.
Castlen and Mills falsely claimed Governor Beshear’s Executive Orders were the cause for the sharp increase in Kentucky’s unemployed, saying, “Due to Governor Andy Beshear’s executive orders, more than 800,000 Kentuckians lost their livelihoods and were forced to file unemployment insurance claims.”
Castlen and Mills fail to tell their readers that on Friday, March 13, 2020, it was the President of the United States who formally declared a “National Health Emergency,” not Governor Beshear. And on March 16, it was the President who announced his“15 Days to Slow the Spread” plan, a set of strict national guidelines that effectively shut down our economy except for essential personnel – not Governor Beshear. Ultimately, the President’s closure of non-essential services lasted more than 30 days.
The most misleading and deceptive claim made by Matt Castlen and Robbie Mills relates to the delay some Kentucky workers endured by not receiving their unemployment insurance benefits on time. Mills and Castlen falsely claim that the delay in providing those
vital unemployment benefits is solely the fault of Governor Beshear and his administration. Castlen and Mills intentionally omit the role they, Matt Bevin, and the Republican-controlled legislature played.
Within days of Republicans gaining complete control of the legislature, then Governor Matt Bevin ordered 30 local unemployment offices throughout rural areas of Kentucky closed – 60% of all state unemployment insurance offices; and he furloughed the nearly 100 state employees working in those 30 offices whose job it was to make sure that Kentucky workers suffering job loss were paid the benefits they had earned through unemployment insurance. How did Bevin accomplish this, you may ask? By Executive Order. And what did Matt Castlen and Robbie Mills say or do at the time? Nothing. No Op-Eds. No public criticism. Not a word.
Weeks later, during the 2017 Session of the General Assembly, a group of Democratic legislators introduced HB 176, as a method of restoring the 30 UI offices and personnel, eliminated by Bevin’s Executive Order. House Republicans refused to even consider the legislation. The result is plain for all of us to see: When the pandemic hit and 800,000 Kentuckians were furloughed or laid off, there were only 20 local UI offices available and almost 100 fewer state unemployment insurance workers available to help them. How many thousands of Kentuckians would have gotten their unemployment insurance benefits faster had Republican legislators stood up to Matt Bevin, joined with their Democratic colleagues and restored those devastating cuts?
The cuts that devastated Kentucky’s unemployment insurance offices and the state’s ability to respond quickly in an economic downturn were not enough. Castlen and Mills still weren’t satisfied.
In 2018, then state representative Robbie Mills co-sponsored legislation (HB-252), pushed by the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and other corporate special interests. House Bill 252 proposed to slash the amount of unemployment insurance benefits laid-off workers could receive by nearly 50%, AND it cut the time the unemployed person could receive those benefits by 40% - from 26 weeks down to 16 weeks. Fortunately for the 800,000 Kentuckians who were laid off due to the pandemic, Democrats, along with a handful of House Republicans like Representative Scott Lewis, were successful in removing these damaging cuts from the bill. Imagine what life for those 800,000 Kentuckians would be like today, had Robbie Mills and the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce had their way and successfully slashed both the amount of unemployment insurance and the length of time Kentucky’s unemployed workers could collect their reduced unemployment checks?
We are used to Republican politicians like Robbie Mills, Matt Castlen and their legislative leaders sowing division with their deception and falsehoods, trying to separate Kentuckians into “us versus them”, but to do it during a deadly pandemic in which Kentuckians are dying every day is almost unimaginable. If they are unhappy with Governor Beshear’s response to this pandemic, we urge Robbie Mills, Matt Castlen and their Republican Party leaders to stop playing politics and propose an alternative plan of their own; and then work with the Governor to help Kentuckians stay safe, while allowing them to provide for their families. Kentuckians deserve no less.