By:
Badlands Journal editorial board
ProPublica's Unemployment Insurance Tracker reveals that California is the largest among 25 states in the category of bankrupt unemployment insurance funds. Currently, according to ProPublica, the state has borrowed $6.5 billion from the federal government, has $113.8 million in the trust fund now and ProPublica predicts the state will be insolvent in six months. No other borrowing state has borrowed more than $1.5 billion (Indiana).
These numbers are a gauge of several factors: the price California pays for being the largest state; the over-concentration on one industry which, having been manipulated by the'big banksters, has laid off huge numbers of people -- from framers to tellers in formercommunity banks -- a catastrophy that has devastated the entire economy, down to what you choose to buy your grandchild at WalMart, who goes to the farmers market these days, and everything in between. The economy has been contracting since before Obama took office.
As pressure builds on the unemployment insurance fund, as debt on the borrowing comes due, what will be the impact on benefits and the impact -- given the state's other billions in debt -- on the state's ability to remain a solvent government?
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