PHOENIX (AP) — State officials warn that legislation to require drug testing for all people applying for unemployment benefits conflicts with federal rules and law and could cost the state millions of dollars of federal funding and force a huge tax increase on Arizona employers.
The bill's sponsor, Republican Sen. Steve Smith, says he doesn't think all that would come to pass and that the state should do what it can to make sure that people receiving taxpayer benefits are fit to work.
"I look at unemployment benefits as a job," Smith said. "We just want to make sure we're not paying for deadbeats."
Other lawmakers aren't so sure, and one plans to change Smith's bill so that its requirement for blanket testing of applicants would only be implemented if the state wouldn't be hit with federal penalties that harm employers.
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