Put politics aside and fix unemployment system
Editorial
Members of the Courier Sentinel editorial board include publisher Carol O’Leary, general manager Kris O’Leary and
Star News editor Brian Wilson.
Wisconsin’s state unemployment compensation system is not so much broken, as it is the victim of bipartisan institutionalized neglect, going back decades.
The roots of this neglect are based, in part, on Wisconsin’s legendary work ethic, and the state being simply too cheap to want to do more than band-aid fixes to keep the system limping along.
Wisconsin values work. Generations of Wisconsinites identity themselves by the work they do, and the value this gives them. The flip side of this, is a very real prejudice against those who are unemployed, as partly or entirely to blame for their circumstances, because of some moral shortfall.
There likewise seems to be no shortage of apocryphal stories about people who are gaming the system. This has played out in politics, as legislators have erected hurdles to qualifying and applying for benefits. The state’s goal in the past decade, especially as workforce labor shortages have become common, is to make the system as difficult as possible to use, in order to serve as an encouragement for people to get back to work.
The other cause of the neglect, is based on the notion that the roof only leaks when it rains. Instead of fixing the proverbial leak when the sun is shining, state elected leadership in both parties, have only been willing to invest in a bucket and a wet floor sign.
This is because the system mostly works and the percentage of people who fall through the cracks only becomes notable during major recessions, and the unprecedented response to COVID-19. Places, such as Milwaukee County, saw unemployment rates go from 3.7 percent in March, to 14.8 percent in April, and did not begin to drop until summer.
Fixing the system won’t be easy or cheap. The base software that runs the system, dates from the early 1970s. To put this in perspective, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos was born in 1968. He was a toddler when programmers used COBOL to modernize the statewide system that serves as the primary safety net for workers.
Over the decades since, there have been numerous calls to invest in upgrading the system. One of the primary reasons given, is that COBOL is fast becoming a “zombie” computer language that, while running on many legacy banking and financial systems, is no longer widely taught.
The number of programmers who are capable of even supporting it, is declining, because of people aging out of the workforce.
Wisconsin must act quickly to replace and modernize the state unemployment system. Gov. Tony Evers has projected this could cost as much as $90 million, and take between three and seven years. He has called for a legislative special session to take action on his plan.
Given the political reality, and animosity between Evers and Vos, any immediate action is unlikely. Cooler heads are needed to bridge the divide and move Wisconsin forward.
Wisconsin leaders in the governor’s office and legislature need to stop pointing fingers, and instead get to work on needed upgrades to the unemployment safety net.
