The Ohio Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to consider a class action lawsuit that could force GOP Gov. Mike DeWine to accept $900 million in unclaimed federal unemployment funds to distribute to the more than 300,000 Ohioans who lost their jobs during the pandemic.
Federal law passed by Congress in 2020 provided an extra $300 a week for those who filed for unemployment during the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. The federal government funds the expanded unemployment payouts and states distribute them.
While the federal government provided Ohio with extra unemployment money for more than a year, DeWine in June 2021 began to refuse to accept or distribute it. He cited the waning pandemic, the mass rollout of the then-new vaccine, and a perception from the business community that expanded unemployment payouts disincentivized people from going to work. The federal government ended the beefed up payouts in September 2021.
However, an Ohio law passed during the Great Depression requires the state to seek “all advantages available” when it comes to federal unemployment dollars. Plaintiffs representing the 300,000-plus who lost their jobs and were eligible for the extra $300 per week filed a class action lawsuit in July.
Since then, Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Michael Holbrook has ruled for the plaintiffs and ordered DeWine to re-enroll in the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation Fund. An appeals court upheld that ruling.
The state has now appealed the matter to the Ohio Supreme Court, which is under 6-1 Republican control – a majority that includes Justice Pat DeWine, the governor’s son. Pat DeWine didn’t participate in the court’s 5-1 decision to take up the case. The court’s lone Democrat, Justice Jennifer Brunner, voted against the Supreme Court taking it up.
State says money is ‘not there’ to distribute
The class action is led by a woman named Candy Bowling, who lost her job during the pandemic working for a company that inspected airplane parts given the sudden collapse of air travel. Under the enhanced unemployment rules, she was entitled to an extra $300 per week in benefits from June through September, when the federal government cut them off.
Dan Tierney, a spokesman for the governor, said in an interview that the money is “not there” anymore at this point and that there is no money for DeWine to request and distribute.
Tierney said the governor’s position on accepting the unemployment money hasn’t changed.
“The bottom line is this was a public health emergency fund that the state ended once there was no longer a public health emergency,” said DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney on Tuesday.
It’s not true that the money is gone, according to Mark Dann, an attorney representing the plaintiffs who formerly served as Ohio’s Democratic attorney general.
He has attached to court filings an affidavit from a Department of Labor worker saying that as of July 2024, the money is still there.
Dann said Congress appropriated the money, didn’t include any expiration date, and hasn’t passed any law rescinding it.
“That advice has not changed,” Dann said.