Connecticut will need emergency loan to bolster unemployment trust

This could lead to higher taxes on businesses. From CT Mirror.

Having paid out billions of dollars in benefits since the coronavirus pandemic struck in mid-March, Connecticut’s unemployment trust fund is headed for insolvency later this month or in early September, according state Labor Department officials.

That means Connecticut will need an emergency federal loan to maintain benefits for hundreds of thousands of unemployed here — a move that could translate into higher taxes on local businesses.

“Right now our primary focus is getting our customers, both the unemployed workers and the businesses, through the pandemic,” Deputy Labor Commissioner Daryle Dudzinski told the CT Mirror.

Having received an unprecedented, 750,000 applications for unemployment benefits since mid-March, the state agency has paid out about $4.4 billion in benefits to date. Roughly $1.6 billion has involved state benefits, drawn from Connecticut’s unemployment compensation trust, and more than $2.8 billion in various forms of enhanced federal aid for the jobless, funded through grants from Washington.

See the complete article from CT Mirror online.