By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
The fiasco surrounding Illinois’ unemployment insurance fund is a perfect example of state’s brand of incompetence. The fund was wiped out by the massive unemployment claims as a result of the government-imposed COVID lockdowns and nothing has been done to replenish it. Only delay, dithering and finger pointing.
What’s likely to result is a major tax hike on businesses and fewer jobs for Illinoisans.
When Illinois received billions in federal COVID aid, Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration had more than enough chances to pay off its $4.5 billion unemployment insurance (UI) fund debt to the federal government. Thirty-one states in the country used their aid to fully repay their debts. Illinois didn’t.
Instead, the Pritzker administration spent most of that federal aid and ignored the unemployment fund issue altogether. Remember when Deputy Gov. Andy Manar said the governor had a plan to fix things? He didn’t.
Now business and labor are at an impasse over how to replenish the fund, Illinois is stuck paying millions in interest costs to the federal government, and new federal and state deadlines that will punish the state even more are bearing down.
The lack of a solution has left businesses pushing for cuts to unemployment benefits, and labor pushing for higher payroll taxes on businesses. Who loses in either case? Ordinary Illinoisans, either from lost jobs, lower unemployment benefits, or both.
The obvious solution is for the Pritzker administration to stop procrastinating and use the federal government’s aid, along with whatever other state revenues are needed, to finally fix the problem.
And by “use federal aid,” we mean all of it. A ridiculous fight over how much federal aid to spend is part of the current holdup.
Pritzker says there’s only $3.5 billion left of the original $8.1 billion in direct state aid from ARPA. The house passed a bill late Wednesday on a party-line 68-43 vote that uses just $2.7 billion of what’s left to pay down the unemployment insurance debt. Presumably the state would borrow about $3 billion to pay down the remainder and have enough to replenish the fund with about $1 billion, with businesses on the hook to pay down the debt through higher payroll taxes.
Republicans, meanwhile, argue there is actually $6.8 billion in direct aid remaining that the state should use.
Again, this should not be a hard decision. With 31 other states having already used some or all of their aid to fully pay down their debt, there is no question here. Using all the aid is good policy, full stop.
And put aside the arguments over the direct Covid aid for a moment. Don’t forget the state’s coffers are flush with cash right now. State resources from increased income, sales and other tax revenues have ballooned as a result of the more than $180 billion in private and public Covid aid the state has received. State revenues are running $4.6 billion higher in 2022 than initially projected.
At least some of that should be freed up to pay down the state’s remaining debt.
Running out of time
Gov. Pritzker’s administration has had more than a year to work on paying down the unemployment insurance.
Now Illinois is running out of time to fix things. The “speed bump” deadlines built into Illinois’ unemployment fund statutes are rapidly approaching. Those speed bumps automatically hike payroll taxes on businesses and cut workers benefits when the unemployment fund is in debt.
All this could have been avoided if the Pritzker administration had simply done the right thing in the first place. Instead, Illinois businesses could now be left with a major tax hike and Illinoisans with fewer jobs.
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
look at that fat idiot wearing his face diaper, probably to help collect all the BS coming from his noise hole!
And when Pritzker runs again, he’ll win. That is the REAL problem with Illinois.
It all depends on how far the national red wave permeates into Illinois. Right now, the wave is predicted to be even bigger than the 1994 ‘contract with america’ red wave that won the Republicans the house of representatives for only the 2nd or 3rd time since the great depression. Biden is a disaster, massively low approval ratings, high gas prices, inflation, foreign proxy wars, even his own party is really angry with him. There’s some indications that low-information Democrat voters might sit out 2022. Many feel that the progressives have taken over the party and they don’t support that,… Read more »
Discusting,lying,overweight slob
Photo reminds me of “Let the Illinois People Go”
Maybe there’s only $3.5 billion of the $8.1 billion ARPA funds left because it’s been a pork-barrel feeding frenzy of grant giveaways w zero oversight and zero overall planning. Seemingly jbs in the news every day announcing some new equity grant/ giveaway to a nonprofit for $100s of g’s to $millions for violence interrupters, community health workers, etc. Who knows if any of these grants/ giveaways have any effect? Or how the $ end up being spent? I have no idea what a violence interrupter does other than sit at home and collect a $check?…but jb looks good zooming around… Read more »
Liars lie and thieves steal. This will not change.
Incompetence? Try opportunistic grifters.
Illinois is as trustworthy with money as a 3 year-old is with a loaded gun.The result will be regrettable and probably permanent. If the state were an individual, a conservator for its property would have been appointed years ago.
We should rename the state-Brittneynois
Illinois got $8.1 billion from the feds!?-An insider told me JB spent $7.9 of that money at Dunkin Donuts and Taco Bell,and that was just in the first two weeks!!
Just looking at that fat simpleton wearing a mask makes me want to puke.
Wears a mask while being 500 pounds. What a fat idiot. His weight is at far more risk to him than anything else. He gained weight during the pandemic, exposing in the end that he wasn’t that concerned about his health during it. What a fat slob. Typical lazy American. I’ll wear a worthless mask while I slowly eat myself to death. Pathetic.
He didn’t exactly set a good example for everyone. In the statistical studies of COVID complications and deaths, obesity was clearly the most consistent co-morbidity. But it’s a lot easier to just virtue signal by wearing a mask than reduce the obesity.
Im surprised they make masks big enough to fit his gigantic melon of a head.Im pretty his head is larger than Andre the Giants.
Pritzker’s been given his marching orders. He’ll “fix” the unemployment fraud-n-waste fiasco with the same system Illinois has used to “fix” it’s pestilential pension mess. Spend $1 on a $1,000 problem, then buy enough votes-n-influence with the remaining $999 to allow everyone to pretend that even though things are getting worse, all is well. Bottom line – Illinois voters are the enablers of our state’s toxic bankruptcy of finances and governance. Too many of us – far too many – don’t care that we’re being lied to. Look around you. How many people that you know spend less time informing… Read more »
Oh you are exactly right people of Illinois are clueless to the toxic environment in Springfield.
Here is an Emergency notice on Illinois government contracts and bids website dated March 11
http://www.govcb.com/government-bids/search.htm?gov%5B%5D=sl&searchText=Ides&state=IL&naicscode=&catID=
[IL]Emergency Notice- Claimant Portal
NOTICE-Emergency Procurement so that IDES can continue to provide an electronic Claimant Portal… )……
State Government of Illinois | Illinois
JB definitely has a strategy. The Fed bailed out Illinois once, and he thinks they’ll do it again. It’s how silver spoon trust fund baby progressives think. The don’t believe in accountability. You just wait until the magic money machine gives you what you want.
It can be intuited that the reason the Democrats do want to use all of the federal funds to pay down the debt is that Pritzker et.al freely expect private employers to pick up the additional burden, no matter how much of a competitive disadvantage it places employers. Pritzker made a big deal about losing the progressive tax amendment, threatening cuts. But that never was going happen. All sorts of taxes and levies, most all of them regressive, have been and will continue to be implemented. The beast must be fed. The inevitable increase in unemployment rates is another tax… Read more »
Fiasco indeed. This article should be pinned to every mail drop against Pritzker in November.
Corruption at its worst, never mind incompetence. Money is being siphoned off somewhere.
Anybody but Pritzker. We have to get him out.