Will County Gazette

Sen. Sue Rezin (R-Morris) is criticizing Gov. J. B. Pritzker for his proposal to use federal funds to partially repay the $4.5 billion unemployment trust fund debt.

"This was avoidable. The governor and his Democratic allies in the General Assembly had nearly a year to allocate federal ARPA dollars to fix the growing UI trust fund and the deficit that it had," Rezin said at a press conference. "Instead of being fiscally responsible and prioritizing our trust fund, they waited and decided to appropriate our one-time federal dollars on other programs and proposals, including $1 billion on personal pork projects in their districts."  

The Illinois General Assembly approved the utilization of $2.7 billion in federal COVID relief funds to partially pay off the unemployment trust fund debt. SB2803 was signed by Pritzker into law on March 25. It passed the Senate on a 39-16 vote and the House on a 68-43 vote. 

Sen. Don DeWitte (R-St. Charles) said the legislation will bring tax hikes.

"This action will lead to the largest tax increase on business in the state of Illinois in this state's history," DeWitte said, according to WTTW. "Employers who have been treated with absolute disregard throughout this pandemic will literally be left holding the bag, and will be responsible for filing the remaining deficit to the Unemployment Insurance Trust fund." 

Rezin also faulted the administration for the amount of unemployment fraud.

"We still don't even know how much of the UI trust fund's $4.5 billion dollar debt was created by this administration's inability to effectively combat the unemployment fraud in this trust fund," Rezin said. "Many of your identities were stolen. I know mine was stolen twice. What we do know is that just for the first three months of the pandemic, the UI program in our state gave out $155 million in fraudulent payments. That's just in the first three months."

Several independent analysts have supported the governor in his decision, reported Insurance Newsnet. "Overall, I think the state's decision to use ARPA for replenishing the deficit in the unemployment insurance trust fund was fiscally wise and prudent," said Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation, a nonprofit research group.

Insurance Newsnet reported that the Office of Management and Budget of Illinois stated that about $800 million in the ARPA funds remain unallocated and unspent.