Jobless benefits put Wisconsin in hole, By Jason Stein, March 15, 2010, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “The state’s struggling insurance fund for jobless workers has already borrowed $1.2 billion from the federal government to pay record claims, but the Legislature won’t try to stanch the bleeding until next year at the earliest, officials said. Cutting benefits to the unemployed now or raising taxes that are already on the increase would threaten the state’s battered economy, labor and business leaders agree. But delaying repairs to the state’s unemployment reserve fund could lead to more borrowing and higher interest payments to the federal government to repay the debt later. Like 31 other states around the country, Wisconsin has had to borrow money from the federal government to help it keep making payments to some 250,000 out-of-work state residents…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty