Chambana Sun

State Rep. Brad Halbrook (R-Shelbyville) is one of many Republicans criticizing Gov. J.B. Pritzker for not paying Illinois' unemployment insurance debt in a timely manner. 

The state was on the hook for more than $1.3 billion of a $4.5 billion loan it took out to cover unemployment during the lockdown. On Nov. 29, legislation to pay back that debt went through an “Agreed Bill” process where both employers and labor worked together on the changes in the statute. 

“Once again, the answer to a problem the state created was to tax businesses more. I voted against the ‘Agreed’ bill that will raise rates on employers to fix a problem created by the Pritzker administration,” Halbrook said.

The Illinois Freedom Caucus, composed of state Reps. Adam Niemerg (R-Dieterich); Chris Miller (R-Oakland); Brad Halbrook (R-Shelbyville); Blaine Wilhour (R-Beecher City), and Dan Caulkins (R-Decatur), issued a statement underscoring the governor's decision to not pay the bill sooner. 

“Let’s be clear why we are here today," the group said, according to The Southland Journal. "We are here because Governor Pritzker locked down our economy creating a raid on the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund like we have never seen before. We are here because instead of paying back the $4.5 billion we borrowed from the federal government to make the fund solvent, our leaders chose only partial payments from Illinois’s American Rescue Plan Act funds to back the loan. Instead of making good on the loan, our state’s leaders chose election year ploys such as temporary tax relief measures to improve their re-election chances." 

Illinois Freedom Caucus blames Prizker for the state's current situation noting that this is due to his inability to "figure out how to stop fraud and waste as the state paid out $2 billion in fraudulent unemployment claims.” 

“The mismanagement and incompetence have led to where it always leads – higher taxes," the group said. "As a result of the vote taken today on the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund bailout, taxes on businesses will go up 12 percent over the next five years. Those taxes will ultimately be paid by hard-working families who will see higher prices for the things they need to run their households. This is on top of the record inflation we are experiencing all across this country. Today’s vote is another example of how hard-working, honest people are paying a steep price for the graft and corruption in Springfield. Our leaders chose their own political future over working families. This is disappointing but not unexpected in our corrupt state.”

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Illinois Department of Employment Security received a high number of fraudulent claims, and Republicans blamed Pritzker in particular for his oversight of the state program. The governor does not have an exact figure on how much was lost but said that, “The federal government has identified billions of dollars from the federal creation of the PUA program and we're still working with the federal government to uncover that and also to prosecute people who fraudulently took money from the system.” 

COVID unemployment fraud is being investigated federally. Republican members on the House Ways and Means Committee recently drafted a letter to the U.S. Department of Labor demanding materials related to the fraud. Accoding to The Center Square, a part of that letter reads, “Since the Summer of 2020, repeated alerts from federal law enforcement agencies warned of targeted efforts involving organized cybercrime, foreign actors, and international crime rings using stolen identities of American citizens to obtain fraudulent unemployment benefits. Fraud estimates range from $80 billion to as much as $400 billion, which is nearly half of all the COVID-19 unemployment aid.”

The passage of the legislation was applauded by Rob Karr, director of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association. According to him, "Illinois employers would have faced crushing tax increases. Following years of disruption and myriad ongoing challenges, it would have been an added burden many employers would have been unable to bear," WTTW reported. Karr added that the “Passage of this agreement helps … ease pressure, ensure greater stability in the unemployment insurance systems, and means Illinois employers will face at least $900 million less in taxes over five years than they would have otherwise.”