Page 5 - State Workforce News Today

State budget chief Melissa McCaw couldn’t have known she would start a movement last December when she quietly made special arrangements to give raises between 5% and 10% to 13 nonunion management employees in her agency, the Office of Policy and Management. It took a while for her action to become news, in this column, on May 1. But since then, it’s grown into a cause for many among the more than 1,300 other non-union managers spread throughout the executive branch of state government, who ...

April 23, 2021 Maine Senate Confirms New Members to Maines State Workforce Board AUGUSTA - The Maine Senate confirmed five nominees to the State Workforce Board (SWB) in a vote held late Thursday afternoon. These five new SWB members, nominated by Governor Mills, are Adria Horn of Pittston, Allyson Coombs of Brunswick, The Honorable John Patrick of Rumford, Meryl Fogg Ryan of Falmouth, and Vaughan Woodruff of Pittsfield. "With yesterdays confirmation vote by the Maine Senate, the State Workforc...

( Albany, NY) Today, the Senate Majority will pass its one-house budget resolution that delivers emergency aid to help New York recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and invests in a brighter, more equitable future by fully funding essential services and putting more money in the pockets of working and middle-class families. The Senate resolution increases total school aid by $5.7 billion, provides billions in residential and commercial rental and foreclosure assistance, restores critical funding ...

California has been the biggest target, with an estimated $11 billion in fraudulent payments and an additional $19 billion in suspect accounts. Colorado has paid out nearly as much to scammers — an estimated $6.5 billion — as it has to people who filed legitimate unemployment claims. Other estimates, according to AP reporting across the states, range from several hundred thousand dollars in smaller states such as Alaska and Wyoming to hundreds of millions in more populous states such as Mas...

fbusch@nujournal.com NEW ULM — Brown County commissioners approved a bid abstract summary for a concrete overlay project on CSAH 13 between Hanska and 220th Street, near New Ulm on Tuesday. Action came on a motion by Commissioner Scott Windschitl, seconded by Commissioner Jeff Veerkamp. Work is scheduled to begin on or before June 7 and take up to 60 working days to complete. Bids were opened Feb. 24. The project will be funded with federal, state aid and Local Option Sales Tax funds. The cou...

Geoff Mulvihill and Andrew Welsh-Huggins Associated Press COLUMBUS, Ohio  — With the floodgates set to open on another round of unemployment aid, states are being hammered with a new wave of fraud as they scramble to update security systems and block scammers who already have siphoned billions of dollars from pandemic-related jobless programs. The fraud is fleecing taxpayers, delaying legitimate payments and turning thousands of Americans into unwitting identity-theft victims. Many states ha...

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — With the floodgates set to open on another round of unemployment aid, states are being hammered with a new wave of fraud as they scrambl

California may have lost up to $30 billion in unemployment benefits fraud. Other states are just now taking stock and finding tens of billions more.

The fraud is fleecing taxpayers, delaying legitimate payments and turning thousands of Americans into unwitting identity theft victims.

The Labor Department inspector general’s office estimates more than $63 billion in unemployment benefits was paid due to fraud or errors — roughly 10% of the total amount under pandemic-related programs.