City Wire: States borrowed $26 billion last year for unemployment funds

[JurisDoctorOfDoom]

Buried halfway through:

At the end of 2009, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that the 25 states and one territory had borrowed more than $26.03 billion to fund their respective unemployment benefit programs. California borrowed $5.914 billion in 2009, the most of any other state.

Mike Miller, with the U.S. Department of Labor division of fiscal and actuarial services, recently reported that payments from state unemployment trust funds will exceed revenues and interest income by $41 billion in fiscal year 2009 and $55.8 billion in fiscal year 2010.

“State UI regular benefit outlays are estimated at $74.9 billion in FY 2009 and $93.3 billion in FY 2010, up significantly from President’s Budget estimates of $66.9 billion and $65.0 billion, respectively,” Miller noted in the report.

Source: http://www.thecitywire.com/?q=node/7631

[Leeshee]

Wow. How the hell are they going to keep paying everyone their 2 years of UE into 2010? It would seem that the infinite extension of UE benefits is taking its toll.

[Midatlantic]

The states are rather insolvent in the dollar sense.  I wonder when they'll start selling off everything owned by the state.  Or if it will go the other way: whether they'll start taking everything in private hands.

[risquebznss]

We'll be reading the same thing about the federal govt if the Obamacare passes. 

They start collecting money right away and most benefits don't kick in for 4 years.

You think they are going to keep any of that in a lock box?   Goes right into the general fund.

4 years from now, poof, no money, it was spent.   

Someone get Rahm on the phone, we got another crisis to take advantage of.

[jcs44]

I'm in North Carolina. I remember reading back in the early part of 2009 when we got the Federal loan to prop up our unemployment system it said that we would have to pay interest back on all funds borrowed that were not repaid by October of 2009. I'm assuming that the deal for all the other states had similar wording. Looking at that list, there are a hell of a lot of states that will probably never repay the principle on these emergency loans, much less any interest owed...