Problems, incompetence (again) from CO's unemployment system while Polis enjoys a media tour. Better late than never commenting re. Xcel's gas rate. Caodaism and a Vietnamese joke.
Yet more incompetence from the Colorado Department of Labor, again dealing with unemployment insurance (UEI).
Maybe our governor could step away from his media tour talking about being a bald, gay, Jewish VP pick long enough to poke his head into the office. Maybe a quick question to perhaps see about fixing our state's failed, and failing UEI system.
The system that, as our chief executive, he ultimately is responsible for and would be more useful to more people than his self-aggrandizement.
Bit behind on this story, but I didn't want to toss it because it's a quasi-update on an earlier post. Earlier in June, I posted about how Colorado is struggling to pay its claims for UEI. See the first link below.
Apparently, the UEI problems persist. This time, however, it's not that they're failing (perhaps still failing?) to pay out claims.
This time it's that the Department of Labor (which administers the UEI program) is sending out notices demanding payment along with fines and interest for UEI money that businesses say they've already paid.
Quoting the CPR article linked second below:
"A customer service representative at Colorado’s labor department told Sumrall [Payroll Vault’s tax resolution specialist Jolinda Sumrall --Payroll Vault being a company hired by some small businesses to handle their UEI payments] there were problems transferring data from previous years into the new computer system. Some of the information got scrambled when it moved over, according to the representative, leading to incorrect Social Security numbers being entered in the system and inflated wages. The erroneous wage data is what’s leading to the state’s demands for interest and penalties, according to Sumrall. There are errors in data submitted as far back as 2019, according to Sumrall. Roughly 30 percent of the company’s clients are experiencing the problem. The state instructed Sumrall to go in and manually re-enter the correct data."
Yeah, manually re-enter the data. For hundreds of clients. For multiple years. For a problem that they didn't create. Continuing from the article:
"Sumrall was directed to a different person at the labor department for further assistance. But, according to Sumrall, that employee’s voicemail box was full. Emails went unanswered for weeks. When Sumrall finally got a response, she was essentially told it was the employers’ fault – not the state’s. It was a contentious phone call."
I can't imagine why there'd be contention.
Only in the government can you make a problem, not answer your phone or email, and then tell someone it's their problem not yours. Well, only in the government can you do such things and keep your job.
It gets better. Further down in the article we see that the same computer issues creating this problem are creating others. No real sense in the article of when the problem will get fixed. Guess we'll just throw it on the pile.
Imagine for a minute you ran a small business. Your time has to be divided among a host of activities, and, since we live in a finite world, what you put into A comes at the cost of putting into B.
Now imagine that you got a letter. You filed and sent money in, but now the state's demanding you pay your due. So, to uncoil this problem, you now need to take time from some other task to deal with this. What do you short?
Oh, and then when you do short that other task you find the mailbox of the person you need to speak with is full. And they don't answer emails. So now you get to short something again in the future when you get to try again.
When I posted back in early June on this topic I got a response on Facebook that I wanted to share (here without the name not to keep the person anonymous -- it's on FB after all, but rather because the frustration and not the name are the important thing).
I wanted to share it because the anger that someone who runs a small business in this state is palpable in their comment. The deserved frustration comes through loud and clear.
It's a small wonder that anyone outside of a giant corporation with an army of in-house compliance workers wants to own or run a business in this state at all.
"The CDLE is in a deficit (in the red) due to THEIR negligent overpayments on massive extended and countless fraudulent UI claims. No accountability on their end, so they’re passing the tax burden on to Colorado’s businesses of all sizes and shapes. They passed a house bill without any voting in 2022, the Colorado Employment Security Act. As such, all CO businesses must pay higher base, support, solvency surcharge rates for payroll taxes On Wage Premium (Tax) reports every quarter in 2024 and until the CDLE is in the black again."
"This includes small, family-owned, family-operated, self-employed business owners whose ONLY employees are family/owners WHO NEVER file UI claims…AND NEVER WILL. Ridiculously unfair taxing! And CDLE changed the word “taxing” to “premiums” so this tax-burden rip-off sounds more beneficial to our tiny self-employed, family-owned, family-operated businesses that have to pay did CDLE’s wanton wrecklessness in handing out free money for too long.
No taxation without representation! It’s been FUBAR since October 2023, with CDLE’s error-prone Website. No relief in site, not even on the phone."
https://open.substack.com/pub/coloradoaccountabilityproject/p/what-is-peer-review-hey-lower-south?r=15ij6n&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
https://www.cpr.org/2024/06/26/colorado-small-businesses-unemployment-insurance-taxes/
https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb22-234
We're both late to attend the PUC's hearing on Xcel's gas rate, but that doesn't mean you still can't speak up.
You just need to do it via written comment or a (and this one's news to me!) voicemail.
Unfortunately I heard about the Public Utility Commission's seeking public comment on Xcel Energy raising gas prices too late. According to the article linked at bottom, which I saw yesterday, they had a Zoom meeting with a chance for people to speak up ... yesterday.
Dang.
That's the bad news. Here's the good: you can still comment. The article mentions that they'll hold future listening sessions. If you're interested, my best advice for you is to go to the PUC website and sign up for updates and/or check back regularly.
If you would rather speak up now, you still can. You just can't do it in a live forum. You'll have to do it by written comment or leave a voicemail.
I copied the instructions on that from the article and put it at the bottom of the page. I urge you to join me in speaking up.
I myself called and left a voicemail because it was a new thing. The system was not at all hard to navigate. If you do decide to call in, don't forget to have the Proceeding Number (see below) handy. There are other ways to reference what you're commenting about, they tell you different ways to do so in the automated system, but having that number handy will ensure your comment goes to the right file.
Speak up! Doing it late is better than not doing it at all.
Written/Voicemail Comment Instructions
Individuals can also submit written or verbal public comments. Public comments should reference Proceeding Number 24AL-0049G and can be provided by:
• Submitting written comments through the Commission’s Electronic Filing System (E-Filings)
• Submitting written comments using the Commission’s online form.
• Submitting through email at dora_puc_website@state.co.us.
• Mailing comments to the Commission’s offices at: Colorado Public Utilities Commission, 1560 Broadway, Suite 250, Denver, CO 80202.
• Calling (303) 869-3490 to leave oral comments (English and Spanish options).
Caodaism
That time of the week again. Last post til Sunday and thus something for fun not involving (current in this case) politics.
I listened to a series of lectures recently about the history of the CIA, and the lecturer happened to mention the historical basis behind the book/movies "The Quiet American".
I put a link to the Wikipedia page for the book and the later version of the movie first and second below if you're interested. Good story. Recommend both.
The thing I wanted to post on, however, was mentioned in the book and linked third below (again, a Wikipedia page, my academic conscience here cringes at using this for a source for something important so I will soothe it by reminding you that the Wikipedia page is a good jumping-off point).
It's the religion Caodaism.
In the book, the author talks about the religion's "Rome" and "Pope" being in Vietnam and sure enough, the Wikipedia page seems to center the religion's founding there during the French Colonial period.
Interesting theology and certainly much more involved than the (cynical and world-weary) narrator of the book had it. Going by the narrator's description, I had it in my mind as more of a "grab bag" kind of religion where they tossed in a bunch of other religions, and not all of them Eastern, for good measure. I mean, there is the element of reconciliation of all religions in there, but it's not as simple as the book had it. If comparative religion and theology are an interest, give it a look and follow the links back.
One last parting thought. I was reminded while reading of how religions adapt as they try to make themselves appeal to more and more people. All of them do it, but the thing that came first to my mind was how Christian holidays were moved around the calendar to correspond to certain pagan festivals to help new adherents be more comfortable.
Not wrong, not bad, but not new and not a unique idea to modern religions like Caodaism either.
That's it for today. Off to do whatever it is that I do. See you back on Sunday!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Quiet_American
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Quiet_American_(2002_film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caodaism
Related:
At the school where I taught prior to the one I'm at now, there was a decent number of Vietnamese students.
I had a student named Phuong (the name matching the female lead character in the book/movie above).
Didn't realize til listening to the audiobook that certain versions (depending on the spelling involving Vietnamese characters and not our more limited Roman alphabet) of the name Phuong in Vietnamese translate as "phoenix". See below.
One last niblet. I do not entirely understand the joke, but it's the only Vietnamese joke I know so I'll share.
Q: Why do Vietnamese people like the USSR?
A: Because they're so Viet.
https://www.ancestry.com/first-name-meaning/phuong
So viet. Funny!