OKLAHOMA CITY – Ten Oklahomans sued Gov. Kevin Stitt in the state Supreme Court on Monday, contending he doesn’t have the authority to prematurely terminate federal unemployment benefits authorized in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
An unemployed Sand Springs woman filed a similar lawsuit in Tulsa County District Court earlier this month against the director of the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission. However, that case was transferred Tuesday to Oklahoma County District Court “because the cause of action arose in that county.”
Attorney Mark Hammons, representing the 10 citizens who are or were unemployed, asked the Supreme Court to assume original jurisdiction because one of Stitt’s executive orders “resulted in the reduction of unemployment compensation benefits … affecting 73,900 unemployed Oklahomans.”
Qualified jobless Oklahomans have been collecting $300 Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation, along with Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation which extended benefits beyond the typical 26 weeks, Pandemic Unemployment Assistance awarded to self-employed and gig workers, and Mixed Earner Unemployment Compensation which provided an additional $100 per week in benefits to individuals who were not receiving PUA payments and who received at least $5,000 of self-employment income in the most recent taxable year.
Those federal programs are slated to end in September, but Oklahoma and several other states ended their participation early. Stitt announced in May that Oklahoma’s participation would terminate on June 26.
State unemployment benefits are still being paid but federal unemployment benefit payments in Oklahoma did indeed end on June 26, said Shelley Zumwalt, executive director of the OESC.
The benefits that the plaintiffs and other unemployed Oklahomans received are used to pay for food, housing and medical care “which will either be unavailable or not fully available due to the reduction of such benefits,” Hammons wrote in his lawsuit petition. “The need for such funds is urgent…”
LITIGANTS SUFFER ‘FINANCIAL HARM’
The 53-year-old Tulsa County litigant wrote that she worked at a restaurant in Sand Springs “about 25 hours a week” earning $8.50 per hour. But last fall she quit because of potential exposure to COVID-19, which could be lethal because of her underlying medical condition: COPD.
She filed for unemployment and had been receiving weekly benefits that included the federal payment of $300 and the Oklahoma benefit of $175.
According to the woman’s lawsuit, her rent costs $400/month; utilities, $200/month; liability insurance on her 14-year-old car costs $35/month; mobile phone, $35/month; food, $500/month; plus her medications.
Unemployment “is her only source of income,” the petition claims. Since her federal unemployment benefits were discontinued three weeks ago, she “cannot afford living expenses…”
Each of the 10 Oklahomans who filed suit in the state Supreme Court “is suffering a present and ongoing financial harm from the denial of benefit programs,” Hammons asserted in his petition.
The two lawsuits contend that neither Governor Stitt nor Ms. Zumwalt has the authority to suspend the federal benefit payments.
Zumwalt “assumed power that was within the province” of the Legislature, attorneys asserted.
And Hammons argued that the provision of unemployment benefits is “a statutory system which does not provide any powers to the Governor” to control or determine benefits. “There is no executive authority that allows the Governor to determine benefits under the Oklahoma Employment Security Act.”
Hammons also pointed to Title 40 of the Oklahoma Statutes, which declares, “Economic insecurity due to unemployment is a serious menace to the health, morals, and welfare of the people of this state. Unemployment is therefore a subject of general interest and concern which requires appropriate action by the Legislature to prevent its spread and to lighten its burden which now so often falls with crushing force upon the unemployed worker and his family.”
CRITICS BLAME FEDERAL BENEFITS FOR WORKER SHORTAGE
The governor and many other Republicans blame the federal benefit programs for the worker shortage that has left many employers short-handed as the state and nation emerge from a year-long shutdown because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Our challenge is not to get businesses back open; we’ve done that,” Stitt said. “It’s been getting employees back to work.” The federal government “has created an incentive to stay at home instead of getting back into the workforce,” he charged.
Not all state legislators agreed with suspending the federal benefits two and a half months early.
“It’s not that people aren’t working. It’s that they have found better jobs and better opportunities for themselves and their families,” said Rep. Mickey Dollens, D-Oklahoma City.
He pointed to the more than 10,000 new jobs in the medical marijuana industry alone. The unemployment rate in Oklahoma is below the national average, Dollens noted, and Oklahoma is “near its pre-pandemic rate of employment,” Hammons wrote.
There is “no evidence” that providing unemployed individuals with enhanced jobless benefits “keeps persons out of the workplace market,” Hammons wrote in his legal brief. “In point of fact,” he wrote, “Oklahoma’s unemployment rate has steadily declined during the period when enhanced benefits have been available.”
2,000 APPLICANTS QUALIFY FOR BONUS
As motivation to get more Oklahomans to re-enter the job market, Stitt proposed a $1,200 bonus to the first 20,000 Oklahomans to rejoin the labor force. The incentive will be paid with funds from the federal American Rescue Plan.
Ms. Zumwalt said the OESC has received more than 10,000 applications for the Governor’s Back-to-Work bonus, and approximately 2,000 have “made it to the final review stage.”
More than 90% of the applications that were denied did not meet the minimum requirement of having an active unemployment claim between May 2-15, 2021, she said. Other applications that did not make it to the final review were denied for various reasons, including blurry paystub photos and the information submitted did not match the paystubs.
“I encourage any applicant who was denied and believes they are eligible, to reapply for the initiative,” Zumwalt said. “Applicants should carefully read the submission instructions, take clear, well-lit photos, and reapply with information that matches their paystubs.”
Oral argument in the lawsuit filed by the 10 petitioners is scheduled before the Supreme Court at 10:30 a.m. on August 11 in the Oklahoma Judicial Center in Oklahoma City.
“Our office does not comment on pending litigation,” Charlie Hannema, chief of communications in the Governor’s Office, told the Ledger on Tuesday. The OESC “is not able to provide details on any possible lawsuits at this time,” agency spokesman Nick Buscemi told the Ledger on Wednesday.