Highland Dark

News Hits was checking out a press release sent out Monday by the Detroit chapter of the Rev. Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Push Coalition and other similarly left-leaning allies when something interesting caught our eye.

We were already aware of the announcement's main thrust: That there is much concern about the plan to remove an estimated 12,600 families from the state's welfare rolls come Oct. 1 so that Gov. Rick Snyder's budget for the coming fiscal year can be met. The move is expected to save the state some $77.4 million a year. Judging from some of the comments posted on this rag's website after the Hits wrote about the issue last week, a fair number of you out there aren't all that troubled by the prospect of 50,000 people — the majority of them children — losing their financial lifeline at a time when the state's unemployment rate is a daunting 10.5 percent.

So much for compassion.

The release we received was trying to get out word that a town hall meeting on the issue is going to be held at 7 p.m. this Thursday (Aug. 25) at IBEW Local 58, 1358 Abbott St., Detroit.

What really grabbed our attention, though, was mention of the fact that, at the same time the state is planning to kick people off of welfare, it also failed to apply for federal funds that could have gone into the hands of people collecting unemployment.

What's up with that, we wondered.

Here's what we found out:

In 2009, as part of the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a big green carrot was dangled in front of states as a way of enticing them to "modernize" their laws regulating how unemployment benefits are handled. They were given four options, at least two of which had to be enacted to receive funding — in the case of Michigan, a whopping $137 million — that could be used to help keep money flowing to the unemployed.

In 2010, when the Michigan House was still under the control of those bleeding-heart Democrats, legislation was passed by that body calling for two of the required changes. One would allow the unemployed to collect benefits while taking job training. The thinking was that doing so would better enable them to find some new job.

The other proposed change was to allow laid-off people who were only looking to work part-time to also collect. As pointed out by Rick McHugh, Midwest coordinator for the nonprofit National Employment Law Project, nearly two-thirds of these part-time workers are women, and the majority of them earn relatively low wages.

"Michigan's restrictive part-time rule is simply inequitable and out of step with the role of part-time work in a modern economy," McHugh said in testimony provided to the Legislature.

> Email Curt Guyette