One would expand agency, and the other would eliminate it

By VICKY ECKENRODE, The Times-Union

ATLANTA -- No other race in the upcoming primary will showcase two candidates with such opposite approaches as the Republican choices for state labor commissioner.

On one side is Brent Brown, an Atlanta businessman, with ideas on how to expand the agency's scope.

On the other is state lawmaker Chuck Scheid from Woodstock who wants to get rid of the very office he is running for as a way to downsize the government.

The winner of the July 18 primary will have the chance to face Mike Thurmond, a Democrat who has held the post since winning in 1998 and is unopposed in his primary.

Scheid, who has served as a legislator for eight years and works as a business financial consultant, is campaigning on the idea that he can make the agency run more efficiently by parceling out its duties to other state offices and getting rid of the commission's post by the end of a four-year term.

"I just don't believe that in the modern world we need to elect this position anymore," Scheid said. "We've got a department here that with 4,000 employees and a $353 million [budget], we can do this job better by taking part of it -- vocation rehabilitation -- and place it in the Department of Human Resources."

He also thinks another agency responsibility, to deal with businesses and handle unemployment taxes, could be attached to the state Department of Economic Development.

Eventually, the function of helping people find jobs would be outsourced to private job placement firms or executive search companies, Scheid said.

"It's more productive in getting folks back to work," he said. Brown described Scheid's plan as full of holes. "By simply suggesting that we're going to abolish this department and those problems are going to be magically fixed is absolutely ridiculous," he said.

This will be Brown's second attempt at running against Thurmond in the general election.

In 2002, he lost the Republican primary, capturing 48 percent of the vote.

Georgia's Department of Labor is responsible for administering unemployment insurance, providing job placement help and overseeing vocational rehabilitation programs.

It also provides information and analysis about the state's workforce.

Brown said he also thinks the department should take a stronger role in pushing economic development and vocation training among students.

"You protect the workforce today to make it the most educated, skilled workforce available," said Brown, who thinks the labor commission should have a permanent seat on the state Board of Education. "Most people only know the Department of Labor as the department of unemployment. The Department of Labor is designed to protect the workforce of Georgia."

He also said he has a way to cut payroll taxes for companies by cracking down on unemployment fraud.

An aggressive enforcement campaign to find people abusing the unemployment benefits system as well as technology improvements to address those who incorrectly continue to receive checks after finding new employment would reduce the amount that business pay into the unemployment insurance pool, Brown said.

"There is absolutely no shame about collecting unemployment, but it can only go to those that deserve it," he said.

vicky.eckenrodemorris.com, (404) 681-1701