Posted on 05/05/2023 8:57:33 PM PDT by T.B. Yoits
California borrowed approximately $20 billion from the federal government to cover unemployment benefits during the pandemic, and with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent decision to not pay it back, employers are now saddled with the expense, according to experts.
“The state should have taken care of the loans with the COVID money it received from the government in 2021,” Marc Joffe, policy analyst at the Cato Institute—a public policy think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C.—told The Epoch Times.
In the proposed 2023–2024 budget, $750 million was allocated to start paying down the loans, but Newsom made changes to the plan in January and withdrew the funding.
The decision leaves businesses in the state responsible for the loans—as mandated by federal regulations—so the federal unemployment tax rate of .6 percent is set to increase by .3 percent annually, starting in 2023, until the loan is extinguished.
“California is just not really an employer-friendly state,” Joffe said. “This one thing will not be a difference between a business remaining open or closing, but it’s just another burden on top of the many burdens the state puts on employers.”
Twenty-two states borrowed money for unemployment insurance from the federal government during the pandemic, with all but four—California, Colorado, Connecticut, and New York—paying back their debts.
California owes the most, by far, with approximately $18.6 billion outstanding as of May 2, followed by New York’s $8 billion, Connecticut’s $187 million, and Colorado’s $77 million, according to U.S. Treasury Department data.
The discrepancy in amounts borrowed and owed by states lies in the different approaches to managing the pandemic, with California’s stricter lockdown causing unemployment to remain higher and longer, according to experts.
(Excerpt) Read more at theepochtimes.com ...
Probably because they have to pay for all of the illegals hiding in their state.
$100 billion surplus
“May 13, 2022
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday pledged to use the state’s record-breaking $300 billion budget, including an unprecedented nearly $100 billion surplus, to “future proof” the state from the impacts of a volatile midterm election cycle that he fears will undermine abortion access, gun safety and privacy protections across the country.”
The elite Democrats’ plan has always been to kick the debt can down the road, until they no longer can. When the rank-and-file little folk who vote Democrat figure this out, there will be a sea change. Until then, “meh.”
According to the article they intend to claw it back through the unemployment insurance. Rates going up a quarter of a percent or more.
It won’t show up as a sales tax, it will show up in higher prices for goods & services. Essentially a hidden tax on Californians.
The saying in the business world is ABC - Anywhere But California...
Silicon Valley, with its foreign CEOs, will be delighted to pay.
Marxists Dems have destroyed Ca.
I am constantly amazed why, anyone with a business in California doesn’t relocate to a more business friendly state. If it’s not regulations, it’s taxes if it’s not taxes, it’s a new regulations in the cycle just repeats.
Actually, in the hands of heroin addicts the budget would probably be less reckless because with access to unlimited funding for heroin, they'd all OD and die before all the money would be spent.
Wait until they pay their Africanos 5 million each. ROTFL.
If somebody should be paying “reparations” to the Africans, it should be the NBA, NFL, MLB, Hollywood and Motown. They are the ones still using Africans like slaves.
Stop giving the beggar Illegals free stuff ,they only send it to their home countries
“Connecticut’s $187 million - that’s what Gov Ed Lamont seems to claim is Connecticut’s budget surplus and is desperately trying to spend down.”
It is Mafia accounting.
What is mine is mine and what is yours is mine!
So they should repay loan money with grant money from the same people? That seems very strange.
democrats, including every dem voter, have simply become the enemy. They are not just some group of innocent people just trying to survive. They are an aggressive angry cult bent on destroying and killing their enemies.
“...now businesses have to pay”? If sales tax is going up to pay California’s debt, then Californians have to pay.>>> The increase is to the unemployment tax rate so the business will increase the top line to pay for it. Anyone who does business with the company will pay for the increase.
Oh well... Let them eat cake.
It’s California... they can just identify as having paid it back.
“ You get what you elect.”
We complain about the leaders but indeed the voters chose them.
But NYS has over a billion bucks for the Bills’ new stadium...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.