Senator Kevin O’Toole, a member of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, issued the following statement today regarding the final unemployment figures for 2008 unemployment figures released by the Corzine Administration:
“For many years, payments into the state Unemployment Insurance Fund that middle-class families paid were diverted. Employers and workers paid into this fund believing that the money would be there to protect them during hard times.
This was a false promise made by the politicians and bureaucrats in Trenton. These diverted monies were used to support other programs totally unrelated to providing benefits for the jobless.
“Now that unemployment is at 7.3 percent, the highest levels in many years, the fund put in place to protect families facing joblessness is dangerously depleted. There are 22,000 more jobless in New Jersey that originally estimated, bringing the total unemployment figure for 2008 to nearly 86,000. This figure will undoubtedly place more strain on the unemployment fund in the upcoming fiscal year.
“The UI fund is so diminished that it could possibly cause the state to impose higher taxes on businesses. In this poor business climate, raising taxes would be nothing short of disastrous.
“Higher taxes and fees, more debt and runaway spending all contributed to the current economic downturn that increased unemployment. Governor Corzine must address the critical issue, without raising taxes, of the dangerously depleted Unemployment Insurance Fund in the Budget Message he delivers to the taxpayers of New Jersey on Tuesday.”
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April 16, 2009
