Gov. Brad Little held a press conference today focusing on unemployment and Idaho’s economy, but that’s not all he talked about. Towards the end of the conference, Little discussed the decision to send approximately 400 national guardsmen to Washington, D.C., Black Lives Matter demonstrations in Boise and anti-police graffiti on the Idaho Capitol building.
Unemployment and the Economy
To encourage Idahoans to return to work and bolster the economy, Little said the state will provide $100 million in one-time return-to-work bonuses. This federal relief money will be available to those eligible for unemployment benefits since March. The state will provide the bonuses upon return to the workforce.
“More than 60% of Americans who are out of work because of the pandemic earn more with enhanced unemployment benefits than they do from their normal wages,” Little said. “This is not a bad thing, but it may create some hesitancy to go back to work. Now is the time for us to provide Idahoans with a financial incentive to return to work and ensure our economic rebound is swift and robust.”
The state will provide $1,500 cash bonuses to those working full time and $750 cash bonuses to those working part time. The Idaho Workforce Development Council and Coronavirus Financial Advisory Committee are finalizing eligibility and application information. The information will be available at the Idaho Rebounds website by June 15, Little said.
“We anticipate (the bonuses) won’t be enough, but we’re putting this out as bait to get the economy going,” Little said. He said he hopes the money runs out as people return to work.
“We want that incentive there and the longer we put it, the slower people will go back to work,” Little said.
Idaho Budget Bureau Budget and Regulatory Chief Alex Adams said the number of Idahoans this program would serve depends on how many full time and part time employees return to work. He said he anticipates the program will serve about 70,000 Idahoans.
Little said more than 145,000 unemployment benefits claims have been filed in Idaho since the COVID-19 state of emergency declaration was signed in March. This is almost two and a half times the total number of claims filed over the course of 2019, he said.
Little said the state is addressing concerns about the speed at which the state is responding to unemployment claims. He mentioned adding employees to the call center, rehiring old employees, hiring and training new employees and paying overtime to those who qualify.
“We’re starting to get the more generic cases out of the way, but the real backlog is in these more complicated cases where we have to do verification, in some instances back three, four, five employers to do the verification by law,” Little said.
Other reasons for the lack of speed in responding to claims include preventing fraudulent claims from passing through as was seen in Washington state and the design of the system, Little said.
“We’re one of the top states in filing, but we get them filed and then all of the sudden these 80 issues pop up and we don’t have a good automated system to address those 80 complaints and that’s slowing down the system,” Little said.
Black Lives Matter in Boise and Washington, D.C.
The conversation moved to Idaho’s decision to send National Guardsmen to Washington, D.C. and Black Lives Matter demonstrations about ten minutes before the end of the press conference.
As originally reported by Idaho Statesman, the Guardsmen will begin working today at monuments, federal buildings and other property in Washington, D.C. Little said the Guardsmen will be embedded with park police.
“It was my call (to send the Guardsmen),” Little said. “I think we were the 12th state. Some states didn’t send — some states had their Guard deployed in a lot of other areas. Our Guard was supposed to be in Europe right now, so they were queued up to go to Europe, so they were around and available.”
This comes as D.C. mayor Muriel E. Bowser formally asked President Donald Trump to “withdraw all extraordinary federal law enforcement and military presence” from D.C. on Friday. The same day, The Pentagon told incoming guardsmen to not use firearms or ammunitions.
“I was asked by the National Guard Bureau and the senior staff at the Guard center said it was a good thing to do,” Little said when asked why he sent the Guardsmen.
Little also discussed the recent Black Lives Matter vigil in Boise.
“I think the people that attended, the organizers, obviously the staff here at the Capitol Mall, our Idaho State Police, the Boise police, I had conversations with the mayor — it was exemplary,” Little said. “There was a lot of friction there at certain times and I’m very proud of them. I think the tone was set when they had that event by all the Idahoans that showed up there to voice their concern about the issue about George Floyd’s death and that set the tone for a much more rational discussion about the entire issue of discrimination, of police issues.”
Little did not approve of the anti-police graffiti found on the Idaho Capitol building during the protest, however, calling the action “unacceptable” and “stupid.” He said the security at the Capitol, ISP and Boise police worked together on the case. Adding reactions from around the state have called the action “unacceptable.”
“Everybody in Idaho loves this old building and we want to take care of it,” Little said. “I know it was a stupid thing and not the right thing and we will go on. Even people that were part of the (vigil), that was where I heard most of the outcry, were people that wanted to show up here and erase that, which is a little difficult on this sandstone.”
He said people have a right to free speech and the net outcome of the event was positive.
“I know people did the right thing in Idaho,” Little said.
Lex Miller can be reached at [email protected]