- N.C. borrowing billions for jobless, By David Ranii, December 1, 2009, News and Observer: “North Carolina’s high unemployment rate has stuck the state with $1.4 billion in debt – money that officials don’t know how they’ll pay back. It gets worse. The debt is still rising. The problem is that with about one-half million people out of work, the state has more unemployment claims than it can pay. So it has been borrowing from the federal government since February, sometimes as much as $20 million a day. The tally will rise to at least $2 billion by the end of the year, said David Clegg, deputy chairman and chief operating officer of the N.C. Employment Security Commission. Next year, depending on the economy, could add another $2 billion to the tab, he said. For purposes of comparison, the state budget for the current fiscal year is $19 billion…”
- State’s unemployment insurance fund runs out of cash, By Matthew Sturdevant, December 1, 2009, Hartford Courant: “The state’s unemployment insurance fund became insolvent on Oct. 13, and Connecticut expects to borrow $900 million from the federal government to keep paying checks to a growing number of out-of-work residents. The unemployment trust fund is funded by a two-part tax on employers that is on track to bring in $630 million to $650 million in revenue this year – far short of the $1.3 billion the state expects to pay out in unemployment benefits, said Carl Guzzardi, tax director for the state Department of Labor…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty