Working for Illinois Caucus

Republicans said last week, another $1.8 billion should go into the state’s unemployment insurance trust fund. The Democratic-controlled legislature put $2.7 million into it and decided the rest should go to other obligations. The money came from federal American Relief Plan Act money for COVID-19 relief.

Ottawa Democratic St. Rep. Lance Yednock maybe more will be put into unemployment–maybe with a new funding formula or maybe with money from another source. Another formula for funding unemployment insurance could mean higher unemployment insurance taxes on employers or lower payments to the unemployed.

Yednock says the state has a lot of obligations to consider when paying things off. Some legislative Republicans said last week, the General Assembly also should have borrowed money at lower interest rates a year ago while using COVID relief funds to pay other debts down. Yednock says the state is paying debts down under Gov. Pritzker and improvements in the state government’s bond rating show how well Illinois is doing.

On police reform, Yednock doesn’t think the entire SAFE-T Act should be repealed. Some people in law enforcement have spoken out against eliminating bail for most crimes, limiting police interactions with parolees, and making it easy to file anonymous complaints. Yednock says law enforcement personnel he’s spoken with like at least some of the act, including the training standards and body cameras requirements.

WCMY spoke to Yednock Saturday at the LaSalle County Democratic Party annual dinner while there was still a week to go in the General Assembly’s session.