This week, NFIB New York Assistant State Director Ashley Ranslow wrote a commentary article for the Albany Times-Union, “This new pandemic crisis could sink small businesses,” calling on New York to use federal ARPA funds to replenish the state’s depleted Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund: “New York state needs to prioritize getting people back to work, lowering UI taxes, and replenishing the trust fund. New York’s elected officials now have the opportunity to support the small businesses they so often champion on the campaign trail.”
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The Albany Times-Union
Commentary: This new pandemic crisis could sink small businesses
Ashley Ranslow
Sep. 28, 2021
There is a is a disaster looming in New York that continues to go unaddressed and largely unmentioned. The state’s Unemployment Insurance (UI) Trust Fund has no money, and New York has borrowed more than $10 billion from the federal government to pay UI claims over the last 18 months. The state’s unemployment rate stands at 7.6 percent, compared to a national average of 5.2 percent. As New York continues to pay out claims, the state digs itself into a deeper and deeper hole with pandemic-battered small businesses having to pay the price, literally.
In March, small businesses were hit with an unplanned and hefty UI tax bill. Some saw their UI tax bills skyrocket by thousands of dollars. Why? Under New York state law, when the UI Trust Fund balance is zero, everyone is moved into the highest tax tables to replenish the fund. There’s no way around it unless the Legislature passes a bill to adjust the rate tables, which the Senate and Assembly should do as soon as they return to session in January…
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To go to the Times Union website and read the entire commentary, go here:
Commentary: This new pandemic crisis could sink small businesses (timesunion.com)
