VEC cutback meeting set for Monday

Allison Brophy Champion / Culpeper Star Exponent
Published: May 12, 2007

Have something to say about the impending statewide closures and layoffs at Virginia Employment Commission offices-

Local citizens will have an opportunity to weigh in on the VEC cutbacks at a town hall meeting Monday at 7 p.m. at the Germanna Center for Advanced Technology in Culpeper.

VEC Commissioner Dolores Esser recently announced the need for "significant" reductions to the agency's 37 statewide field offices and 1,250 employees. Whether the Culpeper VEC office will close or local employees will be laid off remains to be seen.

The cutback in staff and offices is necessary because of steady decreases in the VEC's sole source of funding - the federal government's allocation of federal unemployment taxes paid by Virginia employers.

In fiscal year 2005, Virginia received just 30.2 percent of employer-paid federal unemployment taxes - the second lowest in the nation behind Florida.

"This has been an ongoing problem for years," said Peter Mocarski, manager at the Culpeper VEC office, of dwindling federal funding.

"It's kind of the fact of life that we will have to deal with."