BATON ROUGE, La. — Louisiana will start borrowing money from the federal government in early October to keep paying benefits to jobless workers.
The state’s once-healthy unemployment trust fund is nearly empty because of the coronavirus outbreak.
Lawmakers meeting in a special session that starts next week are scrambling for financing options to refill the fund that topped $1 billion before the pandemic, rather than relying on federal loans long term.
Senate President Page Cortez and House Speaker Clay Schexnayder refused Friday to officially acknowledge the near-bankruptcy of the trust fund in a state forecasting meeting.
Such a formal recognition would trigger increased taxes for business and a drop in jobless benefits for unemployed workers in 2021.
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