XPost: alt.california, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.society.liberalism   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns   
   From: unqualified.black.cunt@splcenter.org   
      
   On 13 Sep 2021, jthomq@gmail.com posted some   
   news:sho7c6$bdt$1@news.dns-netz.com:   
      
   > Jonathan wrote   
   >   
   >> Democrats mismanage money again.  That's because they are incompetent   
   >> pieces of shit.   
      
   IN SUMMARY   
      
   California has almost $20 billion of debt from the surge in unemployment   
   claims during the pandemic, more than any other state. One reason is   
   California’s higher unemployment rate; another is that employer taxes   
   haven’t kept up with increasing benefits. Now, employers will see an   
   automatic tax increase to start paying off the debt, and Newsom has   
   proposed spending $3 billion in state funds to reduce the debt.   
      
   Lea este artículo en español.   
      
   You may have heard how phony pandemic jobless claims swamped California,   
   or how frantic callers jammed phone lines with questions that the state’s   
   employment agency struggled to answer.   
      
   But there’s yet another problem with the Golden State’s unemployment   
   system that’s been brewing quietly during the pandemic: California now   
   bears the unhappy distinction of having about as much unemployment debt as   
   all other states combined.   
      
   When California pays out unemployment benefits, the money has to come from   
   somewhere.   
      
   That somewhere is the state’s unemployment insurance trust fund, a pool of   
   cash funded by a tax on employers. Millions have used unemployment   
   benefits during the pandemic, draining existing reserves, and now the   
   state is in debt to the tune of nearly $20 billion. Most states have no   
   debt.   
      
   The debt will get paid off. But how soon will it get paid off, and how   
   many taxpayer dollars will go toward that?   
      
   Under the current system, it’s going to take years of higher taxes on   
   employers, who fund the benefits, to pay it back. Gov. Gavin Newsom   
   proposed using $3 billion of the state’s projected $21 billion surplus to   
   take a bite out of that debt, in addition to hundreds of millions to cover   
   the loan’s interest payment, when he unveiled his budget proposal in   
   January. While that proposal is intended primarily to help businesses,   
   there’s no guarantee businesses will reap a benefit directly, especially   
   in the short term.   
      
   California’s unemployment system was on dicey footing even before the   
   pandemic, rated as the least financially stable system of all 50 states in   
   February of 2020 by the U.S. Department of Labor.   
      
   The sharp economic shock of a pandemic was hard to predict. But   
   California’s unemployment system, it now appears, is having a uniquely   
   hard time clawing its way back to normal. If the way California funds   
   unemployment doesn’t change, economists say, we could see the unemployment   
   system go into debt again and again.   
      
   How did we get here?   
   California’s unemployment system has an important piggy bank: the   
   unemployment insurance trust fund. Employers put money into it on a   
   regular basis via taxes. Workers receive money from it when they get   
   unemployment benefits.   
      
   The federal government loaned money to many states early in the pandemic   
   to shore up their unemployment funds. But two years later, several states   
   have paid off their federal loans, while California’s balance remains the   
   highest of any state.   
      
      
   One key problem is that while California lawmakers have increased   
   unemployment benefits over past decades, in part to keep up with   
   inflation, the money flowing into the system from employers has not kept   
   pace, said Audrey Guo, an economist at Santa Clara University who studies   
   unemployment insurance.   
      
   On top of that, more Californians have been out of work throughout the   
   pandemic compared to the national average. The national unemployment rate   
   surged to 14.7% in April of 2020, and had come down to 8.4% by August of   
   2020, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.   
      
   But California’s jobless rate shot higher and didn’t fall back as quickly.   
   It reached 15.9% in April of 2020, and was still at 11.9% by August. In   
   December 2021, California still had one of the highest unemployment rates   
   in the nation.   
      
   In addition, many states used federal COVID relief money to pay off some   
   or all of their unemployment insurance debt, but California hasn’t done   
   that.   
      
   One reason the money from employers hasn’t kept up is that California   
      
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