County Impact received an alert from the North Carolina Justice Center. Please see the text of that alert below. County Impact stands in support of the Justice Center’s position to tell your Senator to VOTE NO on House Bill 4!

TAKE ACTION NOW: Tell your Senator to vote NO on House Bill 4, stop attack on working families

A bill to impose the harshest cuts to unemployment benefits anywhere in the nation has passed the North Carolina House and is heading to the Senate Floor on Tuesday, February 12.

House Bill 4 would:

• Cut the maximum benefit amount by 1/3 to $350 per week. No state has ever made such a severe cut.
• Cut the maximum weeks of benefits from the standard of 26 weeks to a sliding scale of 12-to-20 weeks. Only two other states (Florida and Georgia) do this.
• Make it harder for many lower-income, temporarily laid off and seasonal workers to qualify for any unemployment benefits, and end eligibility for workers leaving jobs due to health or family issues.
• Shut down federally-funded Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) extension benefits — cutting off federal jobless aid to 80,000 unemployed North Carolina workers and their families on July 1, 2013.
• As of July 1, North Carolina — with the fifth highest unemployment rate in the nation, at 9.2% — would offer only HALF the total weeks of benefits as North Dakota – the state with the lowest unemployment rate, at 3.2%.

http://action.ncjustice.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=9466