Topeka ? Business interests and advocates for workers clashed Wednesday over measures dealing with unemployment insurance.

Debate on the bills comes at a time when Kansas is mired in an economic slump that has produced thousands of layoffs, especially in the aircraft and communications industries.

State Rep. Dale Swenson, R-Wichita, who is pushing for increased benefits for laid-off workers, said he doubted many of his proposals would win approval.

“I don’t think labor gets a fair shake in the Legislature,” Swenson said.

But representatives of businesses said they were trying to contain costs to employers at a time when many were struggling to stay in business.

Swenson has introduced legislation to increase weekly unemployment benefits, eliminate the offset of jobless benefits because of the receipt of Social Security benefits, and repeal the “waiting week” that prevents workers from receiving benefits during the first week of their unemployment. His bill also would count more recent wages in calculating benefits, provide dependents’ benefits and clarify coverage for victims of domestic violence.

Swenson and Rebecca Smith, with the National Employment Law Project in Olympia, Wash., argued that increasing benefits would help stimulate the economy by keeping money circulating while helping workers weather the recession.

“The positive economic stimulus of unemployment insurance benefits is curtailed when weekly benefits are too low or unemployment qualifications are too strict,” Smith said.

Swenson has proposed paying for his measures with the $78 million in federal economic stimulus funds the state received last year that currently are sitting in the state unemployment insurance trust fund.

The measures were opposed by the Kansas Chamber of Commerce and Industry and other business groups.

Terry Leatherman, a lobbyist for the KCCI, said unemployment benefits have increased 105 percent in the past two years, and taxes that employers pay into the unemployment trust fund would increase 19 percent this year.

Kansas’ unemployment rate is 4.2 percent with about 35,000 claims for jobless benefits being made each week.