NW Illinois News

This week, State Sen. Win Stoller levied heavy criticism towards IL Governor J.B. Pritzker for his debt to pay down $450 million of a $1.8 billion unemployment insurance debt. 

In a Facebook post, State Sen. Stoller said, "Illinois businesses did not create the lockdowns or give out billions of dollars of unemployment benefits to fraudsters that helped create our state’s nearly $5 billion UI Trust Fund debt. Now, Democratic lawmakers expect businesses to fix a problem of their own creation, which they could’ve easily fixed with the billions of dollars that the federal government provided them."

In 2021, Win Stoller was elected to the Illinois Senate for the first time. As a Republican, he has served on the Environment and Conservation Committee and the Senate Higher Education Committee. The Illinois Senate lists Stoller as a state senator who lives in Germantown Hills.

Along with Sen. Sue Rezin, Stoller was one of the Senate Republicans' chief Unemployment Insurance (UI) Trust Fund negotiators.

According to the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, the state of Illinois received $8.1 billion for COVID-19 relief and economic recovery. Thirty-one states used their APRA dollars to eliminate their deficits and replenish their Trust Fund balances as a result of the federal government's approval of ARPA funds for UI Trust Fund items. This was not done by the State of Illinois.

In 2023, Illinois employers will lose Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) credit if the remaining UI Trust Fund debt is not repaid by Nov. 10. FUTA tax credit losses will be 0.3 percent of the first $7k of wages or $21 per employee. Thus, the UI tax per employee will increase from $93.96 to $173.28 in 2023 for employees earning $12,960 for a minimum rate employer, and from $988.20 to $1,326.72 for employees earning $12,960 for a maximum rate employer in 2023. Springfield won't see the General Assembly again until the fall Veto Session on Nov. 15.