Harvey Peeler

Dwayne Goins said he thinks his chances of finding work in this bad economy only get better if the state starts kicking drug users off the unemployment benefit rolls.

If employers have to spend less money on unemployment benefit taxes, Goins of Walterboro reasons that they will have more money to hire people like him.

He’s been out of work for four months and is desperate to earn a paycheck to support his wife and 6-month-old daughter. Goins said he will take a drug test any day, any time.

South Carolina is one of more than 20 states where lawmakers are trying this year to make drug testing a condition for receiving public assistance, including unemployment benefits, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Bills have been introduced in Georgia and North Carolina to conduct random drug testing for certain public assistance programs. Meanwhile, similar legislation filed this year in other states such as Kentucky already has been defeated.

The question is whether such legislation is constitutional.

S.C. Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler drafted a bill that calls on companies to alert the state when an individual fails a drug test as part of the hiring process. As the bill is drafted now, individuals who fail a drug test or refuse to take one would lose their benefits.

Peeler said he thinks his plan gets around the constitutional concerns.

“If they’re not eligible to work, how can they be eligible to draw unemployment benefits? I think it’s goes hand-in-hand. If it’s illegal, it’s illegal,” said Peeler, R-Gaffney.

On Wednesday, a subcommittee sent the legislation to the full Senate Labor, Commerce and Industry Committee for a vote next week.

Gov. Nikki Haley, a Republican, declined through a spokesman to take a position on the bill, but she said on the campaign trail that she liked the idea.

She said in October that people who apply for unemployment benefits in South Carolina should submit to a drug test as a way to make sure the system is more accountable to taxpayers and businesses.

Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, has successfully helped push back attempts for the state to pass similar legislation in past years.

“Is this like ‘Groundhog Day’? Don’t we have this conversation every year? It’s unconstitutional,” Hutto said.

First, Hutto said, the matter isn’t even an issue because people who are fired for using drugs can’t collect unemployment benefits. Second, he said, the concept of requiring those who receive benefits to take a drug test violates the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, which guards against unreasonable searches.

Hutto said for that reason, passing such a bill will only result in the state getting sued.

“It’s just people playing politics when they ought to be focused on the real issues,” Hutto said.

Sen. Kevin Bryant, R- Anderson, said the No. 1 goal of the bill is to discourage drug use. He has led the debate on the legislation and has tried to navigate around the constitutional land mines.

Any action will be under particular scrutiny by the U.S. Department of Labor, given the trend across the country to limit access to benefits.

Lawmakers still must work out some issues with the bill. For instance, employers would be required to report to the state Department of Employment and Workforce when individuals fail drug tests, but lawmakers haven’t sorted out how to enforce the requirement.

Bryant noted that it would be in the best interest of employers to notify the state. That’s because not paying for drug users to draw down benefits will go toward lowering the premiums businesses must pay per worker toward the unemployment benefits trust fund.

The trust fund, which has been insolvent in recent years, pays out the benefits.

Neil Whitman, president Dunhill Staffing Systems of Charleston, said he wants the state to go as far as it can in denying benefits to drug users. That will help businesses that are struggling to cope with a dramatic increase this year in the taxes paid per worker for the benefits, he said.

The increase in taxes this year for his company jumped from $86.80 per worker to $602.20.

Fixing the system starts with providing benefits only to people are deserve it, and that does not include drug users, he said.

“I am sorry; we need to cut them off,” Whitman said.

Courtesy of The Post and Courier