East Central Reporter

Sen. Chapin Rose (R-Decatur) says the governor's and his Democratic colleagues' plan to pay off only a portion of the state's unemployment insurance trust fund debt is shortsighted.

“People are going to pay,” Rose said. “Because when you get laid off and you can’t put food on your kids’ table and you can't send your kid to college anymore, you’re going to have up to $400 less in benefits because they didn’t fully fund it today. They’ve had $16 billion over the last two years and they couldn’t fix this.”

WTTW News reported the fund is $4.5 billion in debt and is incurring interest.

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 government COVID funding toward  paying off part of the unemployment insurance trust fund debt

Sen. Terri Bryant (R-Murphysboro) voted against the bill.

“The fact is, labor and business are not in support of the bill as it’s written,” Bryant said. “They didn’t oppose it because, as one of my friends in the business said, ‘if someone (is) holding a gun to your head to do something then you don't necessarily oppose something.’ So, in this case, a gun was not held, but figuratively a gun was held to labor and business on the way this bill is written and told 'take this or it's going to be worse because we're not going to give you anything.'”

Rep. Seth Lewis (R-Bartlett) worries the plan will increase taxes on jobs.

“This will result in tax hikes on jobs and decreased benefits," Lewis posted on his website. "I am disappointed that, despite there being a common-sense solution, this is the path that was taken. I hope the General Assembly can move forward and work together to implement fiscal responsibility in Springfield that does not hurt workers and 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.