Sangamon Sun

GOP gubernatorial candidate Jesse Sullivan is criticizing Gov. J.B. Pritzker for appropriating COVID relief money for an unemployment insurance trust fund.

"J.B. Pritzker has never met a tax hike he doesn’t like," Sullivan said in a press release. "And his failure to pursue commonsense budgeting is now costing Illinois families and businesses millions of dollars. The governor could have fixed this problem more than a year ago by using federal aid money to replenish our unemployment insurance trust fund, as more than 30 states have done. Instead, he went on a corrupt spending spree, including $1 billion in capital projects controlled by Democrats. Taxpayers and small businesses deserve better."

The bill, SB2803, appropriated $2 billion in Covid relief funds for paying down the state’s debt to the Department of Employment Security for payment to the Illinois Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund, according to the legislation. The fund is $4.5 billion in debt.

Illinois House Majority Leader Greg Harris announced the bill only days before it blitzed through the General Assembly in a partisan effort, Bondbuyer.com reported. The payments "represents an agreement between" House and Senate Democratic leaders and Gov. J.B. Pritzker on "what the state of Illinois would fund toward solving that $4.5 billion problem," Harris said.

The state is one of many using the one-time American Rescue Plan Act for bailouts, a The Hill contributor said in an op-ed. The plan provided for $86 billion in such bailout funding. Critics have said the funding is really going to bail out failing public union pension plans, according to The Hill.

The bill has passed both chambers with 39-0 votes in House Amendment Concurrence and has been sent to Pritzker’s desk on March 24. If the governor signs, the measure, which also “Appropriates $250,000,000 from the General Revenue Fund to the Illinois Student Assistance Commission to deposit into the Illinois Prepaid Tuition Trust Fund” will take effect immediately.  

Sullivan, 37, is a tech entrepreneur who was born and raised in Menard County.