Imagine this: You have been a loyal employee of a company for 15 years. Then, suddenly, your boss calls you into her office to tell you that the company is cutting back and must let you go.

You're shocked and devastated, but you know that at least you will have unemployment compensation to give you a temporary safety net until you can regroup and, hopefully, find something else.Your head is spinning, and you have a bunch of questions, so you call the state's unemployment compensation office for directions but get a busy signal. You keep trying. Same thing happens. You spend several hours dialing and redialing. Finally, you get through, and you are put on hold. You wait and wait and wait. Several more hours pass. You are still on hold. In disgust, you hang up. The next day, you try again but go through the same gauntlet.Welcome to Pennsylvania's latest political crisis.How did we get to this sorry mess? You may recall that the state General Assembly and the Wolf administration did not provide funding for claims processing applications, so about half of the state's 1,000 claim-handlers were laid off. That shut down several call centers, including a large one in Allentown, where 88 were laid off. The others are in Lancaster and Altoona.While unemployed Pennsylvanians suffer, the blame game continues between Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, and Senate Republicans. Wolf and the Department of Labor and Industry are pointing a finger at the Republicans, most notably Scott Wagner, R-York, who could wind up as Wolf's opponent in 2018 when the governor seeks re-election. Senate Republicans, however, are blaming the Wolf administration, saying that it failed to provide specifics as to where the money to continue the office's operations would come from.But now, at long last, some money is being earmarked for restoration of some employees and some services, but not enough to solve the problem. By a 41-8 vote, the Senate voted to approve a House bill to restore $15 million in funding, a far cry from the $57.5 million needed to put things back the way they were.Last fall, the original full-funding bill sailed through the House by a 175-13 vote and was given first and second consideration by the Senate. When push came to shove last December, however, the Senate, prodded by Wagner, chose not to vote on the bill, effectively killing it and prompting the layoffs. "I dug my foot in," Wagner said of his actions. "They didn't get the job done and need to be held accountable. Let them close down."This week, the House passed the watered-down bill, and the Senate did the same, sending it to the desk of Wolf, who is expected to sign it, but neither side is happy, because this is merely a stopgap measure. (There have been a lot of these in recent years in Pennsylvania government - temporary fixes but no permanent solutions).In a brazen public relations move, Wagner was shown last December in a photo with one of the laid-off workers at the Altoona office to whom he had given a card and $150 in cash. The card read: "Please accept the contents as a small gesture of my appreciation for your service. I am truly sorry that the layoffs are happening, especially at this time of the year (Christmas). I will continue to fight to get to the bottom of this disaster. Please enjoy the holiday, and stay warm!"According to his hometown newspaper, The York Dispatch, Wagner gave out about 100 cards at Altoona. Although he visited Lancaster, he did not give out cash. He was asked by State Sen. Pat Browne, R-Lehigh, not to visit the Allentown office. "He made it clear to me to stay out of his Senate district," Wagner said of Browne in an email.If you go to the department's website, you will be greeted by this message: "Due to reduced funding, the Unemployment Compensation team now has half the staff available to answer calls." You can keep trying by phone - 888-313-7284). You also can file a claim online through the website, but most of the claims require personal follow-up and review or more information.So unemployed Pennsylvanians must not only suffer the indignity of the loss of their job, but the added insult of not having quick access to the tools they need to trigger the safety net that they so desperately require.With the governor's signature, this might change a bit, but even when some of the needed money starts flowing again, the 12-ton elephant will not be leaving the room anytime soon.By Bruce Frassinelli |

tneditor@tnonline.com