Today, the Louisiana Workforce Commission will start receiving money from the federal government to shore up the state’s Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund and keep weekly benefits flowing.
Just last year, the fund had a balance of more than $1 billion. Now it’s down to about $100,000.
Normally, a balance that low would trigger an automatic increase in payroll taxes and a decrease in weekly benefit payouts.
But on Tuesday, the Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee approved a series of bills and resolutions that would prevent those things from happening until 2022.
State lawmakers said ensuring the solvency of the unemployment trust fund would be a priority this session, but so far that issue has taken a backseat to disputes over executive power and the current public health emergency.
