Grundy Reporter

On March 28, Sen. Win Stoller (R-Peoria) and Sen. Sue Rezin (R-Morris) held a press conference to criticize the Democratic lawmakers' decision to hold off on paying down the entirety of the state’s $4.5 billion unemployment insurance trust fund debt.

“Earlier today I joined Senator Win Stoller in Peoria for a press conference about the majority party’s failure to fully fund our state’s unemployment insurance trust fund," Rezin posted on Facebook. "This decision could lead to one of the largest tax increases on businesses in Illinois history as well as worker benefit reductions.”

Senate Bill 2803 passed both the Senate (33-15) and the House (68-43) along partisan lines and was signed by the governor on March 25. The bill authorizes putting $2.7 billion in government COVID funding toward paying off part of the $4.5 billion unemployment insurance trust fund debt.

Republicans are angry the debt wasn't paid off in full and argue the decision will bring tax hikes for businesses.

 “I felt, like Sen. Stoller said, this was avoidable. The governor and his Democrat allies in the General Assembly had nearly a year to allocate federal ARPA dollars to fix the growing issue in the unemployment trust fund," Rezin said at the press conference. "Instead of being fiscally responsible and prioritizing [the unemployment trust fund] they waited and decided to appropriate our one-time federal dollars on other programs and proposals, including $1 billion in personal projects in their districts.”

Rezin faulted the Democrats for delaying a decision and using the funds for community projects.

“We begged the governor and the Democratic lawmakers to use ARPA funds to fix the UI trust fund as soon as the feds announced that Illinois would be receiving over $8 billion," Rezin said. "Instead of doing the responsible thing last year, they chose to wait and while they waited, they couldn’t help themselves and they spent the money. ARPA wasn’t intended for bigger government or pork projects. The federal government designed our budget to be used for COVID-19 relief, and to help with the economic recovery. They approved these funds to be used on items like the UI trust fund.”

News outlets and legislators were sounding the alarm last July that the unemployment trust fund deficit was nearing $5 billion. Chief Executive Officer of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association Rob Karr, told NewChannel 20 that the deficit was “historic. We’ve never seen this swing or been so deep in the hole.”