Peoria Standard

Sen. Win Stoller (R-Peoria) thinks that new legislation to bring down the unemployment insurance trust fund debt will bring a tax hike on employers.

"So now as we're just starting to emerge from the pandemic, our business have faced incredible headwinds," Stoller said at a recent press conference. "They were forced to close, obeying the governor's mandate, they were asked to pay for fraud that they did not commit. And they are facing all kinds of additional challenges like labor shortages, supply chain disruptions, and the impact of out-of-control inflation. So, on top of all of that, the very worst thing that the governor could possibly do is now to force another major tax hike on our employers. But that's exactly what the governor is proposing. We were given all of the money we needed to solve this problem and fix it and avoid this train wreck but we didn't do it."

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.

The bill makes supplemental appropriations from the Pension Stabilization Fund for financing the unfunded liabilities of the General Assembly Retirement System, the Judges Retirement System of Illinois, the State Employees' Retirement System of Illinois, the Teachers' Retirement System of the State of Illinois, and the State Universities Retirement System. It also appropriates $250 million from the General Revenue Fund to the Illinois Student Assistance Commission.