- July 23, 2021
- Posted by: Stratford Team
- Category: Business
Business groups are accusing lawmakers of turning a blind eye to the festering insolvency of the state’s unemployment trust fund and saddling the debt on businesses rather than paying it down with the billions in federal aid and excess tax dollars at the state’s disposal.
“There’s been very little talk about the debt publicly by legislators and it’s something trying to raise awareness of,” said Christopher Carlozzi of the National Federation of Independent Businesses.
Massachusetts’ unemployment trust fund — which funded through a payroll tax on businesses — is drowning amid an unprecedented number of claims throughout the pandemic and by the state’s accounting is on track to be $4 billion in the red by the end of next year.
This spring, lawmakers moved to separate out more than $7 billion in pandemic-era claims after businesses saw their unemployment insurance tax rates more than double, but Jon Hurst of the Retailers Association…
