Metro East Sun

Senator Terri Bryant (R-Murphysboro) said she’s not supporting Senate Bill 2803, which will allocate approximately $2 billion to manage the state’s unemployment insurance.

“The fact is, labor and business are not in support of the bill as it’s written,” Bryant said. “They didn’t oppose it because, as one of my friends in the business said, ‘if someone holding a gun to your head to do something then you don't necessarily oppose something.’ So, in this case, a gun was not held, but figuratively a gun was held to labor and business on the way this bill is written and told take this or it's going to be worse because we're not going to give you anything.”

The money is coming from the state Coronavirus Urgent Remediation Emergency Fund. 

The Illinois General Assembly’s website wrote SB2803, which was sponsored by Democrats and not supported by Republicans, passed both the Senate and the House and was signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker on March 25. 

“They are the last interest-bearing debt that we have in the state,” Sen. Linda Holmes (D-Aurora) said to ABC. “So, we’re going to go ahead and address that and it will save us a lot of money in interest payments.”

ABC reported state Democrats wanted to use the American Rescue Plan funds. The money is used for local governments to have economic support at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Illinois General Assembly’s website showed the bill was largely unsupported by Republicans, receiving a 68-43 vote in the House and a 33-15 vote in the Senate.

“On the Republican side, it seems like they have perhaps more support from big business,” Pritzker told ABC. “And I would just say that businesses across the state, small and large, benefited mightily from the work that was done through this bill to reduce their tax burden.”

Senator Win Stoller (R-Peoria) told ABC this will be the highest tax increase on employers in Illinois history.

The bill makes supplemental appropriations from the Pension Stabilization Fund for financing the unfunded liabilities of the General Assembly Retirement System, the Judges Retirement System of Illinois, the State Employees’ Retirement System of Illinois, the Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Illinois, and the State Universities Retirement System. It also appropriates $250 million from the General Revenue Fund to the Illinois Student Assistance Commission.