Keith Fountain is hopeful that his restored jobless benefits will enable him to avoid foreclosure.
Fountain, 48, of Concord, which is about 110 miles southwest of Raleigh near Charlotte, lost his job as a warehouse worker in June 2009. He was already behind on his house payments when his unemployment benefits were suspended in mid-April amid a political tussle between Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue and the Republican-controlled state legislature.
"We were already juggling things, trying to keep the lights on, the phone on, our house payments made," said Fountain, who lives with his wife, Mary, a pharmacy manager, and the youngest of their three children, a 22-year-old son who is attending the Charlotte Art Institute.
Benefits for Fountain and up to 47,000 other people are expected to resume this week after Perdue signed an executive order Friday - in defiance of the legislature. The governor wanted legislators to approve a bill to extend the extended jobless benefits, but the Republicans linked the issue to the state budget. Long-term unemployed workers who have exhausted their other jobless benefits are potentially eligible for the extended benefits, which were created by a federal stimulus package.
Retroactive for most
The state Employment Security Commission began processing claims Friday and expects "a large majority" of the people who were affected by the suspension to receive retroactive payments going back to mid-April this week, agency spokesman Larry Parker said.
The state's struggling rural economies have pushed North Carolina's unemployment rate above the national average. In April the state rate was 9.7 percent, compared to the nationwide rate of 9 percent. The Triangle's jobless rate was 7.9 percent in April.
Perdue's action won plaudits from worker and consumer advocates who complain that unemployed workers should never have been held hostage in a political standoff.
"I think all of us know that this should have been done without any debate," James Andrews, president of the N.C. State AFL-CIO, said. "We are talking about federal money, not the budget.
"We are talking about resources that allow (unemployed workers) to clothe their kids, put food on the table," Andrews said. "So this is huge."
To no one's surprise, Perdue's executive order raised Republican hackles.
Senate President pro tem Phil Berger, a Republican from Eden, noted that the House and Senate's recent approval of a veto-proof budget includes a provision that extends the unemployment benefits. So the governor's order was "just a desperate attempt to claim credit for something that is going to happen anyway."
Berger also directed legislative staff to study whether the governor's action was legal. Although extended unemployment benefits are funded by the federal government, federal law requires the state to give the go-ahead on paying benefits.
What's the law?
Gerry Cohen, the legislature's director of bill drafting and an expert on the state constitution, said that federal law requires that the state institute extended benefits "by law."
"Well, only the legislature creates law," Cohen said.
Perdue issued a statement Monday defending her ability to unilaterally restore benefits.
"I am confident I have the legal authority to extend the benefits under the powers referenced by this executive order," she said. "But given that the governor's constitutional authority has not previously been used to extend federal unemployment benefits, and given the demonstrated willingness of the Republican leaders in the legislature to use unemployed workers as political pawns, I will not be surprised if they try to stop these benefits from reaching unemployed North Carolinians."
A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Labor concurred in Perdue's interpretation of the law.
"As we read them, the provisions of the executive order do meet federal requirements," Joshua Lamont said.
Berger said the legality issue is moot because "it is increasingly looking as though the budget will become law, so those benefits will be extended."
And if the budget somehow gets off track? "I'm not going to speculate about the what-ifs and the maybes and that sort of thing," he said. "I'm confident that the budget will become law."
Legal niceties aside, Joyce Fowler is eager to receive her retroactive unemployment benefits so she can tackle her debts.
Fowler, 50, of Garner, was laid off from her factory job in April 2009. She has been pursuing an associate's degree in criminal justice at Wake Technical Community College and had to borrow about $2,300 from her mother and sister after her unemployment checks stopped coming.
"I'm so happy that Perdue signed this," she said. "There are a lot of people ... who don't have a sister to lean on, or a mother to lean on, like I have."
Fowler also has another reason to be happy. Last week she started her new full-time job at a factory in Morrisville.
