Chambana Sun

State Rep. Mike Marron (R-Fithian) recently criticized Democratic legislators for passing legislation that didn't completely pay off the unemployment insurance fund debt.

According to a press release from Marron's office, House Democrats recently passed legislation with a $1.7 billion shortfall to the Illinois Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund.

"The pandemic left us with $4.5 billion in unemployment insurance trust fund debt, but this one-time COVID-related debt also came with a one-time COVID-related solution: CARES and ARPA funds," Marron said, according to the press release. "Many other states faced the same challenge we do, and they responsibly used these federal relief dollars to pay off their unemployment insurance debt and avoid tax increases or benefit reductions – but not Illinois.

"The only way to avoid a tax increase on jobs and cuts to unemployment benefits is to fully pay off the debt we owe to the federal government using existing ARPA funding," Marron said. "Leaving a $1.8 billion hole with no plan to pay back the money leaves taxpayers on the hook for future increases and leaves the fund vulnerable in case of another emergency."

On March 23, Marron spoke on the House floor and described the problems "thousands" of Illinoisans across the state have reported facing, including having to seek unemployment because their jobs were shut down by the government during the pandemic and having to continually contact the Illinois Department of Employment Security to try and file unemployment claims.

"All because one man made the decision to shut down businesses and none of us had the guts to actually take a vote on that. And so fast forward two years later – this was the greatest unemployment crisis in the history of the state," Marron said on the House floor. "It left us $4.5 billion in the hole in the unemployment trust fund and now instead of taking care of all of it we're only going to take care of $2.7 billion so the same people that went through all the pain and all the suffering two years ago are the people that are going to be on the hook today to pay for this out of unemployment benefit cuts."

"When is the governor going to take responsibility for what he did and if the governor is not going to take responsibility for it, when are we going to take responsibility for it? We can do better," Marron said. "Pull this out of the record, we can stay here all night long if it takes. We can take care of this and we can do better for the workers the men and women that make this state work so that they will not be on the hook with benefit cuts for the balance of this debt. Vote no."

Marron is not alone in his frustration with the unemployment insurance funding situation. State Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer (R-Jacksonville) issued a statement of his own. 

"Federal ARPA dollars were given to States to cover unseen expenses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic," Davidsmeyer said in his statement. "We have the money to pay off the U.I. deficit and $40 million in accrued interest owed to the U.S. Treasury. Rather than paying off our debt, House Democrats have chosen to give Governor Pritzker a blank check. This reckless spending leaves unpaid debt which will reduce unemployment benefits and raise taxes on every job in Illinois." 

"Illinois can’t keep kicking the can down the road! We can and must do better than this!"