Governor Evers Calls Special Session for Unemployment System

Thursday, January 14th, 2021 -- 10:10 AM

(WMTV) Gov. Tony Evers wants state lawmakers to focus on fixing what he described as the state’s “broken unemployment system” when they meet for a special session next week.

Evers signed the executive order mandating the special session Wednesday morning, directing legislators to meet at noon on Tuesday. He also rolled out his own proposal for updating how the unemployment system works in Wisconsin.

Soon after the pandemic gripped Wisconsin, the Dept. of Workforce Development began accumulating a backlog of new cases it is only beginning to clear.

Evers statement on the new session noted the number of claims since March totaled 8.8 million, exceeding both the previous four years (2016-2019) combined as well as the number filed during the Great Recession a decade ago.

Evers’ plan sets aside more than $5 million for DWD to begin modernizing a system that was still using COBOL, an outdated coding language, for its computer system as claims piled up. It also has proposals for using electronic transfers for transactions and records, saying it will allow for more efficient communication between claimants, employers, and other entities.

In all, he expects it would take $90 million over the next 10 years to completely modernize DWD’s systems.

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