By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
Area legislators representing Ellis County and portions of northwest Kansas are unhappy with the Kansas Department of Labor and are working together to find answers for constituents who have been unable to file for unemployment months after they lost their jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Sen. Rick Billinger, R-Goodland, says another problem - with fraudulent unemployment claims being paid by the state - started a year ago.
"I had a local implement dealer call me who said he has two employees who've worked for him for 30 years and he just received unemployment claims on them," Billinger said from his home office during Saturday's Hays Chamber Virtual Legislative Coffee. "I got hold of the Department of Labor and tried to let them know there's fraud going on."
Billinger said the problem wasn't addressed then and it kept growing, as he and other legislators reported more fraudulent claims coming from their constituents.
"It took them a year to even respond to us, which is so disappointing. They didn't do anything.
"And the sad part of the whole thing is, we don't have anyone in the office. They're all working remote," Billinger added. "I don't believe the right hand knows what the left hand is doing."
Rep. Barb Wasinger, R-Hays, 111th Dist., and Rep. Ken Rahjes, R-Agra, 110th Dist., constantly nodded their heads in agreement with Billinger. They also were appearing virtually from their home offices.
A Feb. 24 audit by the non-partisan Kansas Legislative Division of Post Audit estimates at least $600 million may have been paid to fraudsters.
"The state of Kansas unemployment is upside down and we've got people losing their homes, their cars," Billinger said. "I heard a week ago that somebody committed suicide, just gave up. We can't have these kinds of things going on in Kansas. Unfortunately, we paid $600 million in fraudulent claims and we can't get Kansans money that need it."
Billinger asked Mike Zamrzla, deputy state director for Republican U.S. Senator Jerry Moran, about a timeline for direct payment checks to most Americans that are part of the $1.9 trillion relief package signed by Pres. Joe Biden on Thursday. The funds from the American Rescue Plan were to start showing up in bank accounts as early as the weekend.
"I'm hoping at least these federal $1,400 checks will reach these folks quicker probably than the unemployment in Kansas (will)," Billinger said.
"I wish my crystal ball was a little bit clearer there," Zamrzla answered from his Wichita office.
"We'll be in touch with the IRS and folks with the Treasury Department and in the administration to see that that timeline is certainly encouraged. Now that the bill has passed, certainly those dollars need to get out to Kansans and Americans just as quickly as possible."
Zamrzla noted that Sen. Moran had voted against the FY2021 Budget Reconciliation, which included the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package.
"It was just too large. (Moran) was actually part of group of senators several weeks back that met with the president and proposed what they considered a more reasonably sized package - $618 billion - that was more generally focused to COVID relief. But, unfortunately, from Senator Moran's perspective, that was not taken," Zamrzla said.
Billinger later said he had talked with acting Kansas Dept. of Labor Secretary Amber Shultz last week and urged her to have KDOL employees return to the office.
"Put up plexiglass. Get them shots. If they're not essential employees at this particular time, I don't know who is.
"We owe it to Kansans who are unemployed."
Wasinger and Rahjes again agreed with Billinger and said they also are working daily on unemployment issues.
"I have one gentleman who's been contacting me since early November," Wasinger said. "It breaks your heart."
Billinger contends the problems are not all related to a decades-old computer system that was overwhelmed with the four million claims made shortly after Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly issued a statewide stay-at-home order last spring to help slow the spread of COVID-19.
"Well, yeah, maybe the system is outdated," Billinger agreed. "This administration has had over two years. Not once did I see a request in our budget to upgrade the computers or anything else."
Rahjes talked about a young family in Ellis County "who's gonna lose not just their home but their electricity, formula for their baby.
"These are people. These are not numbers."
Rahjes said he drives by the Department of Labor building in Topeka and there's nobody in the office.
"(It) started out to be 24 to 48 hours (response time)," Rahjes recalled. "We got contacted Thursday about something over a month ago, and, of course, it'd been before that they had tried (to file for unemployment.)
"What happens is they get an email from the Department of Labor saying something's not quite right and to call them. That's a joke.
"The Department of Labor says they're going to set up another hotline. That's a joke."
The system that existed during Republican Gov. Sam Brownback's administration was working, according to Rahjes.
"Nobody knew we were gonna have a thousand times more people filing claims who were gonna be out of work.
"Everything was not perfect before. But let's work on solutions," Rahjes urged. "Let's move forward."
He also related the problem of another constituent who got a 1099 form from the federal government showing the state of Kansas had paid her $21,000 in unemployment during 2020. She actually received $1,250 in unemployment compensation.
Billinger encouraged people who received a 1099 form with a false unemployment claim payment to request a new 1099-G form from the Kansas Dept. of Revenue.
"You don't own that money and you shouldn't pay taxes on it."
"We gotta do better," Billinger sighed.
HB 2196 has been passed by the Kansas House which would create the Unemployment Compensation Modernization and Improvement Council.
According to Wasinger, it requires the Department of Labor to modernize its IT infrastructure and would be made up of employers and employees tasked to make some changes to the program. The penalty for fraud is also strengthened.
HB 2196 creates a fund "so that businesses and not-for-profits and their employees are held harmless from all this fraud," Wasinger said.
She related a comment from Mark Burghart, Secretary of Revenue, who was asked in the Taxation Committee about so many inquiries coming in to his office from Kansans concerned about their inaccurate federal 1099s.
"He said 'it's not our job to worry about it. We have to do what they (federal government) send us.'"
"And, I said to him, I have a real problem with that. I think it's all our problem. We all need to work together to get this fixed."
"It seems like passing some legislation through seems to put a fire under them," Wasinger said Saturday, "so hopefully, we'll get somewhere.
"We need to clean up that mess."
Billinger, vice-chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, says the federal dollars coming to the states have a lot of strings attached.
"I want to make sure we actually target and make things better for Kansas and Kansans."
He hopes one of those areas for one-time payments will be the unemployment fund.
"Many of these employers, especially those who've had all these fraudulent unemployment claims, I don't think it's fair or right to put this on the back of our small businesses in Kansas.
"I think we need to look for ways to beef that account back up.
"Before the pandemic, we were getting close to a billion dollars in that fund. That's not state money. That's the employers' money.
"I'm hopeful we'll be able to help there some."
Billinger would also like to see a one-time payment with the federal money go to deferred maintenance on state buildings, particularly universities.
He plans to find out if a one-time expenditure of the federal dollars could be put into the under-funded KPERS, the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System.
The Hays Chamber March 13 Virtual Legislative Coffee was sponsored by Midwest Energy and Hays Daily News.
The entire 90-minute session can be see in the video below, courtesy of Nex-Tech.