State Initiates Payoff of $1.5B Unemployment Loan, Saving Employers From Large Tax Hikes

Ohio has initiated the repayment of a nearly $1.5 billion federal loan used to pay unemployment benefits during the pandemic. This repayment — a priority for manufacturers — will spare Ohio employers from an estimated $650 million in increased taxes over the next three years. (See this week’s announcement by Gov. Mike DeWine.)

Earlier this year, the OMA worked with key lawmakers and the DeWine-Husted administration to enact House Bill 168, which, among other things, authorized the use of federal COVID-19 aid to repay the federal loan that funded the state’s unemployment insurance (UI) system during the worst of COVID-19. Without this action, the debt would have been paid by businesses since employers fully fund the UI system. 9/1/2021