About Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current | View Entire Issue (July 14, 2021)
Wednesday, July 14,2021 dawsonnews.com I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I 3A High concentration of Ga. jobless claims not involving layoffs slowing benefits processing Dave Williams Capitol Beat News Service ATLANTA - The processing of first-time unemployment claims in Georgia is being slowed down because the vast majority do not involve layoffs, the state Department of Labor reported last week. Only 10% of May’s 74,783 initial jobless claims resulted from Georgians being laid off from their jobs, according to labor department data. Layoffs accounted for 49% of claims at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in April of last year. “Claims filed due to layoffs are determined quickly and payments can be released with- out delay,” Georgia Commissioner of Labor Mark Butler said. “However, we are not seeing many simple layoff claims at this time, and we must review each claim thor oughly to ensure a claimant is eligible.” Delays in processing first time unemployment claims have been a frequent complaint since COVID-19 struck Georgia in March of last year, forcing businesses to close and lay off workers. Such delays are among the allegations in a class-action lawsuit filed against the labor department last month. The week of June 28th was the first full week since Georgia ended its participation in several federal unemploy ment insurance programs begun during the pandemic. However, 19,761 jobless Georgians still filed initial unemployment claims during the week, down 988 from the week before. With the federal programs discontinued, claimants for state unemployment are required to be able and avail able to work and be actively seeking a job during each week they’re asking for bene fits. Information on the best way to conduct work searches can be found on the agency’s web site at dol.georgia.gov. The labor department has processed more than 4.9 mil lion first-time unemployment claims since March of last year, more than during the last 10 years before the pandemic. The agency has paid out more than $22.8 billion in state and federal jobless benefits. More than 203,000 jobs are listed on EmployGeorgia. Claimants receive access to job listings, support to upload up to five searchable resumes, job search assistance, career counseling, skills testing, job fair information and job train ing services. Politics still dominant motivator in Ga. redistricting 'We need to have an independent commission do this process. Time and time again, we see this process taken into the hands of partisan elected officials.' Rev. James Woodall state president, Georgia NAACP Dave Williams Capitol Beat News Service ATLANTA - Georgia citizens want new con gressional and legislative district maps that are fair, transparent and drawn without regard to politics. One after another, they said so during the first four of 11 public hearings the General Assembly is holding across the state this summer to tee up the once-a-decade process of adjusting district lines to reflect shifts in popula tion during the previous 10 years. “It isn’t about being Republican or Democrat but seeking to do what is best for the citizens who call our state home,” Rebecca Yardley of Cleveland, Ga., Republican chairman in Georgia’s 9th Congressional District, told members of the state House and Senate com mittees in charge of redis tricting June 29 during a hearing in Cumming. But if history is any indication, the legisla ture’s Republican majori ty will design maps aimed at maintaining their control of the General Assembly and regaining one or two con gressional seats lost to the Democrats in 2018 and last year. The Democrats drew politically motivated maps when they con trolled the legislature, including a 2001 map that created multi-member state House districts in an ultimately ill-fated effort to stem Republican momentum that culminat ed in the GOP winning a majority in both legisla tive chambers in 2004. Republicans returned the favor in the 2011 redistricting, although they held big enough majorities in the General Assembly that they didn’t have to resort to such strategies as multi-mem ber districts. “The majority party invariably comes up with maps to try to maintain its majority status for the next decade,” said Charles Bullock, a politi cal science professor at the University of Georgia who has written exten sively about redistricting. “The minority party are largely observers in this process.” Two wrinkles promise to make redistricting dif ferent this year. First, the coronavirus pandemic has slowed the decennial U.S. Census, which chums out the data upon which redistricting is based. With the data not expected until the end of September, the General Assembly won’t be able to convene a special ses sion to approve new maps until October or November. Redistricting special sessions are usual ly held in the late sum mer. “There will be a mad dash to get the districts drawn before we go back in January [for the 2022 session],” said state Sen. Elena Parent, D-Atlanta. This also will be the first redistricting carried out since the mid-1960s without the protection of a key section of the 1965 federal Voting Rights Act. In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states with a history of racial discrimination, including Georgia, no longer have to “preclear” their congressional and legislative district maps with the Justice Department. Without the right to demand preclearance of maps, voting rights advo cates who believe one or more of the new maps discriminate against minority voters will be left with the sole option of a court challenge. “We still have the Voting Rights Act, legal protections that assure people of color have an opportunity to elect repre- sentatives of their choice,” said Karuna Ramachandran, director of statewide partnerships for the Norcross-based nonprofit Asian Americans Advancing Justice. Many states in recent years have decided to take politics out of the redistricting process by having an independent commission handle the task. “We need to have an independent commission do this process,” said the Rev. James Woodall, state president of the Georgia NAACP. “Time and time again, we see this process taken into the hands of partisan elected officials.” In 14 states, commis sions have primary responsibility for drawing the maps, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Commissions in six states act only in an advisory capacity, and five states have commissions that serve only as backups if their legislature can’t agree on a plan. Iowa is unique in that it has its legislative staff members draw the maps under a legal requirement that they not give any consideration to incum bent protection or other political concerns. Bullock said he doesn’t foresee any movement in Georgia toward the inde pendent commission route. For one thing, many states that have adopted independent commissions only did so when their citizens mounted a ballot initia tive, an option not avail able in Georgia, he said. “Legislators like to be allowed to draw their dis tricts,” he said. “With an independent commission, they’re giving up some thing.” Bullock said when it comes to drawing new legislative district lines, Georgia Republicans’ main goals will be pro tecting their incumbents and keeping their majori ties in the state House and Senate. However, those goals could come into conflict with each other, he said. “The risk is if the majority party draws a number of districts in which its majority is nar row,” he said. “That might work in 2022 or 2024, but with a wave election or demographic shift, they could lose a number of districts. “If they decide, ‘We can defend a smaller number of districts for 10 years,’ they might con cede some districts.” As for the congressio nal map, Democratic U.S. Reps. Lucy McBath of Roswell and Carolyn Bourdeaux of Suwanee will have the biggest tar gets on their back. McBath won the 6th Congressional District seat in 2018, and Bourdeaux captured the 7th District seat last November. Both districts in Atlanta’s northern sub urbs historically were Republican strongholds, but the Democrats have benefited from demo graphic changes that have significantly swelled their minority populations. Winning both seats would get the GOP back to a 10-4 dominance of Georgia’s congressional delegation. But Bullock said recapturing both districts might be a risky under- taking because Republican mapmakers would have to spread out the region’s GOP voters. He suggested GOP law makers might be better off going after just one of those seats by packing Republican loyalists in the targeted district. “The less aggressive approach would be to concede one of those dis tricts to the Democrats,” he said. While weighing the various political ramifi cations of the maps they’re drawing, Republicans can’t lose sight of some basic legal requirements and best practices of redistricting. Districts must be as close to equal in population as possible, although legis lative maps can vary up to 5%. Also, the legislature is supposed to try to keep together “communities of interest” and respect municipal boundaries. That’s what was upper most in mind for many of the speakers at the initial round of public hearings. “I understand that Georgia is growing and we are becoming more diverse,” Camille Brown, a member of the Cherokee County Republican Party’s exec utive committee, said at the Cumming hearing. “But your goal should be to keep communities together.” Established 1948 CHEVROLET FIND NEW ROADS" “Wjy ■ / v j \t . 0 ,. I 1 . 0. NOW OFFERING LIFETIME ALIGNMENTS High-Performance Automotive Service Let us take outstanding care of your vehicle! From routine maintenance to major repairs, engine diagnostics and troubleshooting, we offer a full spectrum of car care services to protect your investment and ensure your vehicle runs smoothly and safely. 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