Senate President Seeks to Fix Ohio’s Unemployment Insurance System

As state lawmakers work on the new biennial budget, Senate President Matt Huffman (R-Lima) wants a fix by June 30 for Ohio’s unemployment compensation system. According to Gongwer News Service, the state’s Unemployment Trust Fund — which at last check was borrowing an average of nearly $7 million a day to pay benefits — owes the federal government more than $1.4 billion, due in large part to government restrictions imposed during the pandemic.

To address the insolvency of the trust fund, lawmakers must conduct “a serious examination of the premiums that employers pay into the fund and the benefits unemployed workers receive,” Huffman said. 2/25/2021