Southern Illinois News

During a news conference on March 24, Sen. Terri Bryant (R-Murphysboro) gave her reasons for opposing Senate Bill 2803, the Democrats' plan to use federal COVID funds to chip away at the unemployment fund debt.

"When the sponsor closed on the bill today, she said that it was wrong to say that labor and business were opposed to this. I believe what she said was, she quoted me saying, 'This is bad for business, bad for labor and bad for Illinois.' The fact is, labor and business are not in support of the bill as it's written today. They didn't oppose it because, as one of my friends in business said, 'if someone (is) holding a gun to your head to do something, then you don't necessarily oppose something. So, in this case, a gun was not literally held, but figuratively a gun was held to labor and to business on the way this bill is written; and (they) basically (were) told, 'take this or it's going to be worse because we're not going to give you anything,'" Bryant said.

The Democratic-backed bill passed the Senate and House without Republican support. It was signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker on March 25.

The bill received a 68-43 vote in the House and a 33-15 vote in the Senate. 

The bill allocates $2.7 billion from the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to the state's $4.5 billion Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund deficit. 

This would have the effect of "reducing the future tax burden that would otherwise fall on the backs of businesses, large and small, and to protect worker's benefits," Pritzker said.

Central Illinois Proud reported that Republican lawmakers have said that the legislation is not a permanent solution as it will still leave behind a $1.8 million deficit and is only a partial fix. "It severely shortchanges the amount we need to put into the trust fund to get it back to solvency," said state Sen. Win Stoller (R-Peoria).