Sen. Win Stoller | facebook.com/senatorstoller
Sen. Win Stoller | facebook.com/senatorstoller
Sen. Win Stoller (R-Peoria) called out the governor and state Democrats for paying down only a portion of the state's unemployment insurance trust fund debt.
“While other states took action, our governor did nothing except go on a spending spree using some of these American Rescue Plan Act dollars for pork projects and bigger government and another non-covid related spending,” Stoller said at a recent press conference. “He sat on his hands instead of rolling up his sleeves and taking action, and now we're faced with billions of dollars in debt and no plan to solve it other than impending tax benefit cuts, tax increases and more debt. We had all the money we needed to solve this problem, and we didn't do it.”
Stoller isn’t alone in his feelings. Other Republicans feel the same way.
“This action will lead to the largest tax increase on business in the state of Illinois in this state’s history,” state Sen. Don DeWitte (R-West Dndee) said 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.”
Senate Bill 2803 passed both the Senate (33-15) and the House (68-43) along partisan lines and was signed by the governor on March 25. The bill authorizes putting government COVID funding toward paying off part of the unemployment insurance trust fund debt.
“This was completely avoidable because the state was given all the money needed in the federal bailout program, the ARPA program,” Stoller said. “It was an unprecedented gift from the federal government. They didn't give us half the money we needed, they didn't give us 100% of the money we needed, they gave us almost double the amount of money we needed.”
The state will use $2.7 billion of the remaining ARPA funds to put toward the $4.5 billion unemployment insurance trust fund debt the state incurred during the pandemic. The state will not fully fund the UI trust fund like other states have done.
Stoller told ABC Heart of Illinois that this will bring the highest tax increase on employers in Illinois history.
The General Assembly has until April 8 to pass the Fiscal Year 2023 budget, which includes the funding for the unemployment insurance trust fund.
Alerts Sign-up