NW Illinois News

Sen. Win Stoller (R-Peoria) says the Pritzker administration's plan to use federal COVID funds to only partially pay down the unemployment insurance trust fund debt will bring higher taxes.

“The very worst thing that the government could possibly do is now to force another major tax hike on our employers,” Stoller said. “But that’s exactly what the governor is proposing. We were given all of the money we needed to solve this problem and fix it and avoid this train wreck but we didn’t do it.”

The Pew Research Center reported that approximately 9.6 million United States workers lost their jobs between 2019 and 2020. This drove the unemployment insurance trust funds across the country into debt.

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 debt.

The topic has garnered heat from Republicans such as Sen. Don De Witte (R-West Dundee).

“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.”

Stoller said businesses are recovering from being closed earlier in the pandemic.

“So now as we’re just starting to emerge from the pandemic, our business have faced incredible headwinds,” Stoller said. “They were forced to close, obeying the governor’s mandate, they were asked to pay for fraud that they did not commit.”

The bill makes supplemental appropriations from the Pension Stabilization Fund for financing the unfunded liabilities of the General Assembly Retirement System, the Judges Retirement System of Illinois, the State Employees’ Retirement System of Illinois, the Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Illinois, and the State Universities Retirement System. It also appropriates $250 million from the General Revenue Fund to the Illinois Student Assistance Commission.