Sen. Harry Reid has been slamming Republicans for not voting to extend unemployment benefits. Then again, it’s not Harry Reid who will be paying the bill – it’ll be Nevada employers who are already in financial distress and unable to hire additional employees. From the Las Vegas Review-Journal today:
Nevada employers could be hit with automatic increases next year in the taxes they pay to provide unemployment benefits for their laid-off workers.
Cindy Jones, administrator of the Employment Security Division, said the state now owes more than $450 million to the U.S. Department of Labor and employers could be required by a federal law to pay additional taxes to start paying off the loan.
“If a state has loans outstanding for two consecutive years, federal unemployment taxes are increased to employers toward paying back the loans,” Jones said Thursday. “It is very likely that Nevada employers will experience an increase in federal unemployment taxes as it appears to be highly unlikely that the loans will be paid back in time to avoid this tax increase.”
How does socking employers with higher taxes help alleviate the unemployment problem? And if Nevada is already in the hole by $450 million to the feds, how does extending the benefits do anything but make a bad situation worse? Isn’t it time to stop digging this hole?
