Kendall County Times

Sen. Sue Rezin (R-Morris) disagrees with the way Gov. J.B. Pritzker has handled the unemployment insurance trust fund debt.

"This was avoidable. The governor and his Democratic allies in the General Assembly had nearly a year to allocate federal ARPA dollars to fix the growing UI trust fund and the deficit that it had," Rezin said at a March 28 press conference. "Instead of being fiscally responsible and prioritizing our trust fund, they waited and decided to appropriate our one-time federal dollars on other programs and proposals, including 1 billion dollars on personal pork projects in their districts. Now, after only paying off 60% of the trust fund debt, they are patting themselves on the back and calling themselves financially responsible while our state employees and employers are preparing to bear the burden for their failure to truly fix this problem. Spending sprees, pork projects, which is why we don't have enough ARPA dollars left."

The Illinois General Assembly has recently approved using $2.7 billion from the American Rescue Plan Act fund to reduce a portion of the $4.5 billion debt accrued in the unemployment insurance trust fund. The state will not fully pay off the UI trust fund debt with the federal funding like other states have done.

"This action will lead to the largest tax increase on business in the state of Illinois in this state's history," Sen. Don DeWitte (R-St. Charles) 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."

Democrats have lauded the spending plan even though Republicans think that the ARPA funds have been squandered away on pet projects.

"ARPA dollars have been used to keep day cares open, to keep people in their homes, to provide cash to small businesses on the brink of disaster, many of which were shut out of the federal small business lending program," said Pritzker before signing the unemployment insurance trust fund appropriation bill, Insurance Newsnet reported.