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Unemployment Overpayment Mistake | The Line - YouTube
Channel: New Mexico In Focus, a Production of NMPBS
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thank you again to our guests from the
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ukrainian americans of new mexico we
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touched on a few more issues during our
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20-minute plus minute discussion about
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the invasion and our response to it you
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can watch that full interview on our new
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mexico in focus facebook and youtube
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pages
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now let's welcome back to line opinion
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panel back one final time to discuss an
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issue that's been
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flown a bit under the radar according to
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data obtained by searchlight new mexico
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the state mistakenly paid out 106
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million dollars in pandemic unemployment
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aid or pua as it's known and now it's
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demanding that money back from the
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citizens who unknowingly received it now
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is that fair and how could such a major
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error happen let me throw that first
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dude dee dee feldman senator feldman how
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could it happen and why are we asking
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for money back here
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you know it it's it's uh
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it's obvious that the department of
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workforce solutions has been overwhelmed
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uh by uh claims during the
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pandemic and also
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new funds coming to the state through
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the various federal
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through the cares act for example
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and other and other funds uh but they're
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really
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this seems quite incompetent uh in my
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view and really a terrible injustice
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uh that they are now asking people to
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pay back
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uh money that was sent to them by
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their own error
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i mean it is the department of workforce
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solution that calculates how much people
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are due
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in unemployment uh individuals don't
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calculate that themselves
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and figure out whether they're being
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overpaid or underpaid and then to be
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suddenly
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suddenly
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faced with a 13 000
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bill i mean it is
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an outrage uh for the uh department of
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workforce solutions i think
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and uh people i think are justifiably uh
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uh mad about been having this money that
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they supposedly owe
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deducted from future checks
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that they are due
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um
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so uh you know it's just another one of
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those things that's going to make people
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hate government even though
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uh they're they're
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they're the recipient of funds from the
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government they they are
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now going to be left with a very sour
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taste in their mouths
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jessica what do you think about i know
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you know this i'm not news to you but
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you know department of workforce
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solutions their own numbers show 17
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136 people that's nearly 20 percent
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of pua payment recipients have filed
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waivers
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asking to be excused from paying back
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the money
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over 17 000 people
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so let me just say when i first read
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this searchlight piece
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just blew my mind and i will say this
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about that particular piece of reporting
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the original number for overpayment was
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somewhere close to 240 million not the
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106 that they just recently corrected it
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too so even then it seemed really
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extreme and now even with 106 million
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it's just it's a crazy number but you're
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right um you know we're talking about
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real people here we're talking about um
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real people with families and this is
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going to affect them greatly um
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uh the last report i read said something
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like 14 000 people are still waiting for
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waivers to be exempted from repaying
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this and it's just dragging on it's just
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dragging on
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that's wild hey merit the same issue as
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you know is playing out in arizona
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michigan new jersey connecticut lots of
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other states
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should you know should some of the flame
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blame fall in the federal government for
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failing to be specific enough with the
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criteria for pua money
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well
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absolutely and i i think the
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the root cause of this
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there is just so much money out there
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yeah it's a ridiculous amount of money
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out there that went to states flooding
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aid started with the last administration
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continued with this administration new
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mexico was actually one of the slowest
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states we couldn't even figure out how
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to spend all this money right
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that should tell you something the
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situation is almost ludicrous we're
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printing money
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um or just manufacturing it
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electronically i guess uh you could
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almost say um so the notion of going
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down to the lowest level the households
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where it matters where this is keeping
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people um out of poverty and feeding
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their family to claw back from them when
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we're a state who couldn't even figure
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out who was going to spend the money
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whether it's going to be the governor or
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the legislature and that whole fight and
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paying lawyers to work that out in front
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of the supreme court to clap back from
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the individual household to me um that's
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just it's just me right just me no i
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don't think i don't think it's just you
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senator interesting rhode island as you
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probably know is waving all over
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payments
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saying the money is quote long gone
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you know in our state right now more
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than two thousand waiver requests have
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been denied
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i just i don't where are we headed on
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this how did that happen right how did
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that happen well you know i think that
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clearly uh new mexico ought to just give
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a blanket waiver
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uh as a result of these overpayments
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particularly since we are if not the
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poorest state or the uh the lowest
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income state at least in the top three
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of the lowest income states and yes
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there is a lot of money but yes there's
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a lot of unemployment and there's a lot
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of need in new mexico as well
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so all the more reason for
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the department of workforce solutions to
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um
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to
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enact a blanket waiver and then enact
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for the public an accounting of where
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this money
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uh went to
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um and what they're doing with it
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merit i just i
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oh i'm so frustrated with this topic
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because why aren't we as dede says we
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are flush right now
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who are these people inside workforce
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solutions turning down these
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waiver requests that's what i want to
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know right off the top what is the
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criteria how do they decide who gets one
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who decides who doesn't get one we don't
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know any of that at this point right
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that's true there's very little
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transparency on this and then my
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question is what is the state going to
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do with the money
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again we have not been able to figure
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out how to spend the
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uh deluge of federal funds we've gotten
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what are we actually what
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substantive purpose are we going to put
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this these funds to right um
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again i i think a blanket waiver the
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funds are gone
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um and we saw this um in congress with a
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paycheck protect protection program you
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know two serial box tops and a and um uh
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an application put out in crayon and
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your paycheck protection program waiver
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got approved i think new mexico could
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easily do that here
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i i gotta say you know in a poor state
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where money is just a very tricky thing
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if workforce solutions want to take it
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to its natural extent
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and start issuing warrants and bringing
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people to court to get this money back i
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say good luck to them
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you know this this ought to be a very
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interesting deal go ahead senator look
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at a thought there but they don't have
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to they don't have to do that all they
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do is deduct it from their from future
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unemployment checks
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so they still have the upper hand and uh
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they don't have to take affirmative
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action all they have to do is just
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withhold the money now the department of
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workforce solutions i think bears some
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checking um they are they have an acting
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secretary and have had an acting
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secretary since their previous secretary
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bill mccandly left the left the state
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not just left the job but left the state
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very prematurely so um
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i think i think this bears some some
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invent further investigation and i
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really applaud searchlight new mexico
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yeah
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thumbs up to them thank you for
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mentioning them thanks again to our line
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panel amazing as always this week now be
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sure to let us know what you think about
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any of the topics we had a lot of them
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