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Virginia overpays 15 percent of all unemployment benefits

By Paige Winfield Cunningham Nearly 15 percent of unemployment benefits were paid last year to Virginians who didn’t qualify for them, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. In 2009, Virginia ranked ninth for how much states overpaid workers claiming unemployment. Of $1.14 billion the state paid in unemployment, $166 million was handed to workers who didn’t qualify. Louisiana had the ...
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News & Headlines

Expanding DMV services among suggestions to reform government

By Paige Winfield Cunningham on August 30, 2010
By Paige Winfield Cunningham Imagine if state employees worked four 10-hour days each week. Or if you could renew your driver’s license and pay a parking ticket at the state Department of Motor Vehicles at the same time. Or if it was easy to read the state budget. These are some ideas to be considered [...]Read More>>

Schools fund salaries with one-time dollars

By Paige Winfield Cunningham on August 25, 2010
Virginia schools are expected to receive more federal dollars this fall, but officials say they won’t last long enough to tide schools through the recession. Earlier this month, Congress approved a $10 billion Education Jobs Fund intended to pay salaries for teachers who could otherwise have been laid off. If Gov. Bob McDonnell accepts it—and [...]Read More>>

McDonnell launches new stimulus website

By Paige Winfield Cunningham on August 24, 2010
By Paige Winfield Cunningham Gov. Bob McDonnell’s new website to track the federal stimulus money has launched two months after projections. McDonnell spokesperson Stacey Johnson said in May that the site would likely be ready before the end of the month. It launched in July, about two months later, and replaces a website set up [...]Read More>>

Post-9/11 expansion hurt unemployment fund

By Paige Winfield Cunningham on August 18, 2010
By Paige Winfield Cunningham As Virginia’s unemployment fund continues to run on borrowed fumes, some officials blame a post-9/11 expansion of unemployment benefits for why the fund never reached full solvency this decade. Last September, the fund dipped into the negative for the first time in three decades, prompting Virginia to borrow $347 million from [...]Read More>>

As layoffs continue, taxes rise

By Paige Winfield Cunningham on August 17, 2010
By Paige Winfield Cunningham When Circuit City closed its doors last year, the Henrico-based electronics company left behind laid-off workers—and their compensation needs. That’s because it’s the job of Virginia businesses to keep the state’s unemployment trust fund stocked. Employers’ payments into the fund are determined by their history of layoffs and the solvency of [...]Read More>>

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Blog & Analysis

Virginia’s unemployment overpayments

By Paige Winfield Cunningham on September 2, 2010
Maybe Virginia’s unemployment funds would have lasted longer if the state hadn’t given 15 percent of its payments to unqualified claimants last year. In October 2009, the state’s unemployment money ran out and it had to borrow $347 million from the federal government. The same year, it paid $166 million to Virginians who didn’t qualify [...]Read More>>

Va. schools: Band-aids on the Titanic

By Paige Winfield Cunningham on August 31, 2010
Virginia schools are putting band-aids on the Titanic. That was the metaphor used by Kitty Boitnott, president of the Virginia Education Association, when we spoke last week about using one-time federal dollars to postpone teacher layoffs. After last year’s stimulus package sent $1.1 billion to Virginia schools, many districts used their portion to fund teacher [...]Read More>>

Virginia launches a stimulus Web site

By Paige Winfield Cunningham on August 25, 2010
After Gov. Tim Kaine left office, the Web site he set up to track Virginia’s portion of the federal stimulus money was, for all practical purposes, abandoned. Six months later, and two months later than projected, Virginia Comptroller David Von Moll has launched a revamped version that uses Google maps and allows visitors to search [...]Read More>>

Cuccinelli starts the wheels turning — again

By Paige Winfield Cunningham on August 23, 2010
Sometimes politics is like a Rube Goldberg machine. Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli usually sets Virginia’s ball in motion, triggering a predictable chain of events. The sequence goes like this: 1. Cuccinelli issues an opinion or files a lawsuit. 2. Right away, Del. Bob Marshall strongly and publicly supports it. 3. Democrats such as Sen. Creigh [...]Read More>>

Lay off workers, pay more taxes. Reverse. Repeat.

By Paige Winfield Cunningham on August 18, 2010
Lay off workers, pay more taxes. Pay more taxes, lay off more workers. Repeat. An irony has been cycling through Virginia’s economy lately. The number of Virginia businesses filing for bankruptcy doubled between 2007 and 2009. When these companies close their doors, they leave behind laid-off workers — and their compensation needs. That prompts higher [...]Read More>>

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