RALEIGH, N.C. -- A lifeline of extended unemployment benefits on Monday started reaching the first of about 47,000 jobless North Carolina workers caught for seven weeks in a partisan political conflict, but questions persisted about whether Gov. Beverly Perdue had the authority to unfreeze the money.

Republican legislative leaders, who this year took control of the General Assembly for the first time in more than a century, linked the two issues to pressure Perdue into approving a spending plan well before the current budget year ends at the end of the month.

The governor on Friday issued an executive order she contends authorized the benefits to flow again. The Employment Security Commission began processing frozen claims that afternoon and about 20,000 people should see money landing in their accounts this week, agency spokesman Larry Parker said.

Filed Under : Unemployment Insurance