XPost: alt.california, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.society.liberalism   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns   
   From: unqualified.black.cunt@splcenter.org   
      
   On 10 Oct 2021, Steve Cummings  posted some   
   news:sjvm0m$u7b$1@news.dns-netz.com:   
      
   > Wayne Autrey wrote   
   >   
   >> California Democrats are lazy stupid welfare rats.   
      
   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 loan, but Newsom made changes to the plan in January and   
   withdrew the funding.   
      
   Newsom’s office didn’t respond by press time to a request by The Epoch   
   Times for comment.   
      
   The decision leaves businesses in the state responsible for the loans—as   
   mandated by federal regulations—so the federal unemployment tax rate of   
   0.6 percent is set to increase by 0.3 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 for longer, according to   
   experts.   
      
   Epoch Times Photo   
   People walk past the California Employment Development Department in   
   Sacramento on April 18, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)   
   Initially, the state borrowed from its reserves to pay the benefits, but   
   after exhausting its coffers, it borrowed to cover expenses, analysts   
   said.   
      
   Exacerbating the situation were unprecedented levels of fraud occurring   
   across the state because of limited oversight and antiquated computer   
   systems, according to Lee Ohanian, professor of economics at the   
   University of California–Los Angeles.   
      
   Analytics firm LexisNexis estimated the total cost of the fraud at $32.6   
   billion.   
      
   Investigations have since uncovered that illegitimate unemployment   
   benefits payments were paid to convicted felons, with one address   
   receiving 60 separate fraudulent payments.   
      
   Fraud is a persistent issue historically with the program, and a $2   
   million federal grant in 2013 sought to address the issue with new   
   computer software systems.   
      
   The upgrade successfully stopped instances of fraud, but further   
   improvements stopped with the end of the grant in 2016, reportedly because   
   of the agency’s reluctance to take on the annual expense for the third-   
   party service.   
      
   “They were penny wise and pound foolish,” Ohanian told The Epoch Times.   
      
   Epoch Times Photo   
   Employment Development Department paperwork in Irvine, Calif., on April 2,   
   2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)   
   At a cost of $2 million annually, the program would have cost $14 million   
   to operate over the period since it was terminated.   
      
   “Sadly, this is just a trifecta of bad decisions,” Ohanian said. “The   
   [Employment Development Department] made a bad decision to not renew its   
   lease for the fraud detection software, the state government took out a   
   loan and chose to welch on the debt—which is outrageous—and now businesses   
   are repaying more in taxes for the incredibly unwise decisions and   
   mistakes of the state government.”   
      
   Reports that the state is seeking forgiveness from the federal government   
   were met with resistance by policy experts, including Ohanian.   
      
      
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