Financially strapped California will have to come up with more than a million dollars to pay for a recorded message, according to a published report.
The state Employment Development Department will have to fork over $1.1 million for calls made in February to unemployment insurance call centers that were answered by a recorded message, the Sacramento Bee reported.
When callers are unable to get through to the unemployment office, they hear the recorded message. The EDD then pays Verizon 5 cents each time the busy message is played -- even if the caller hangs up.
According to the Bee, last month 20.4 million callers were greeted with the recorded message last month, and in December and January the messages cost taxpayers $3.3 million.
EDD spokeswoman Loree Levy defended the practice, and told the paper, "We do see some value in the custom busy message providing information to our callers rather than just a busy signal."
Democrat Hector De La Torre, who chairs the Assembly's accountability and administrative review committee, called the busy message, "ridiculous."
"If you have a contract that sets up the government to fail this way, we need to change the way we do business. I think we need to have a hearing on this," De La Torre told the Bee.
