Washington Free Beacon
State’s unemployment fund already $20 billion in the red
A powerful California union and Democratic lawmakers are pushing a bill to pay unemployment to striking workers, at a time when the state’s unemployment insurance fund is nearly $20 billion in the red.
The proposal, which will likely be introduced this week, could cost the state millions annually and add to the unemployment fund’s already heavy debt burden that is forecast to stretch through the next decade. California’s businesses would be on the hook for most of these costs, as they have been tasked with replenishing the bankrupt unemployment coffers.
The push to pass this legislation is infuriating business owners, who learned this year they will have to make up the unemployment fund’s $18 billion shortfall through higher payroll taxes—a deficit that resulted from the state losing $32 billion in unemployment payments to fraud during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many California business owners are still recovering after the state’s pandemic shutdowns, which led to nearly 40,000 small businesses closing down in the first several months of 2020….
