AUGUSTA — Congress took an unprecedented step earlier this year by authorizing a pilot program allowing use of unemployment benefits to subsidize the creation of full-time jobs, but it’s unlikely Maine employers will be able to participate in the program.

“No doubt it might very well put people back to work,” said Maine Labor Commissioner Robert Winglass. “It’s a question of affordability . . . because there is no federal money that comes with the program.”

He said the state has no funds to administer a pilot program and it would be expensive to provide the monitoring required under the federal measure. As many as 10 states can participate in a pilot project that would allow funds normally restricted to paying benefits to subsidize employer-provided training or to pay employers who hire those on unemployment.

“We would like to do something with this, of course,” Winglass said, “but we do not have any resources and we are not the only state that is not applying because of the lack of funds to administer a pilot.”

David Clough, state director of the national Federation of Independent Businesses, said he had no doubt such a program would draw the support of employers and those looking for work.

“Certain businesses would be very interested in the program,” Clough said. If the pilot was focused to help provide on-the-job training, it would draw support from employers hard-pressed to pay for training workers, even though they would like to hire additional workers.

“We’ve got 50,000 people out of work in Maine, and we should look at anything that might help get them back to work,” Clough said.

Peter Gore, Vice President of the Maine Chamber of Commerce, said some employers would take advantage of the program. He said jobs are going unfilled in sectors such as manufacturing where training is crucial, and a pilot program could convince employers to hire more workers.

“I think there would be interest, but there would also be questions,” Gore said.

He said employers would worry about using a pilot that would end when the need would not. That would raise the issue about the ongoing cost to the unemployment trust fund and whether using the pilot could affect employer tax rates in the future.

Gore said he understood the concerns of the Labor Department about the costs to administer the program. He hoped Congress would provide at least some administrative funds to allow states like Maine to apply for a pilot project.

“I thought that there would be grants available to help administer these programs,” said Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, who supported the measure in February. “This is a common-sense and practical approach to helping the unemployed and employers at the same time.”

She said Congress should act to make sure federal Labor Department officials make grants available to the states that want pilot programs.

But U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud, D-Maine, said the pilot proposal is a bad idea that he opposes and he is concerned it will undermine the unemployment system.

“Unemployment benefits should only be used to help the unemployed,” he said. “There are other job-training programs out there that can be used without using the unemployment trust fund.”

Michaud said assuring the fiscal stability of the trust fund is a high priority for him and that the pilot programs could end up undermining the fund over time.

Winglass said if Congress does act to provide some administrative funds for the pilot programs, his agency would closely look to see whether it could propose a pilot program that the state could afford.

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