Governor John Bel Edwards is calling on Louisiana’s Congressional Delegation to consider funding Louisiana’s Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund in the current proposal for COVID-19 relief legislation. Edwards says the benefit of the extra help would be widespread.
“It would be awfully helpful to Louisiana, to every other state, most importantly to workers and to businesses if there is assistance for states for the unemployment insurance trust funds to make sure that those are shored up,” said Edwards.
Edwards says the state’s unemployment was 17th strongest in the nation before the pandemic took a toll on the fund.
“If you break below $100 million in the trust fund, then the law triggers an increase on taxes on employers in order to replenish the trust fund and try to ensure the solvency,” said Edwards.
Louisiana law mandates the Louisiana Workforce Commission impose a surtax on businesses up to 30% on taxable payroll.
Edwards says if the fund gets to the point where it needs to borrow money from the feds, that borrowing is available interest-free, but a mechanism has to be set up to pay it back.
“So then there is a surcharge on employers. This is obviously not a good time to impose any additional taxes or surcharges on employers or their payroll,” said Edwards.
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