Elected Leaders Must Address the State’s Outstanding UI Debt
NFIB in New York is calling on Governor Hochul and legislative leaders to take immediate action to address the state’s outstanding Unemployment Insurance (UI) debt and the growing financial burden the state is placing on small businesses across New York State.
“New York’s small businesses have once again been slapped with unnecessary costs as they continue to battle unrelenting challenges,” said Ashley Ranslow, NFIB’s New York State Director. “With inflation, supply chain disruptions, high gas prices, and labor shortages already driving up the cost of doing business, now the state is sending Main Street businesses another bill.”
“What’s even more frustrating and troubling is that these UI interest assessments are on top of increased federal UI tax rates and the highest possible state UI tax rates, needlessly costing businesses thousands of extra dollars,” continued Ranslow. “New York’s elected leaders had the opportunity to prevent these surcharges from hitting businesses mailboxes by using the billions of dollars in federal pandemic aid to pay down the state’s UI debt and interest owed on the debt. Instead, the state skirted responsibility and is leaving hardworking small business owners to foot the bill. Enough is enough. It’s time for New York to stop ignoring this problem and provide much-need relief to Main Street.”
The New York State Dept. of Labor recently notified small businesses that an Interest Assessment Surcharge (IAS) would be charged to businesses to pay the interest the state owes on it’s outstanding $8.1 billion federal UI debt. The IAS varies from year to year, but the amount due in September is $27.60 per employee. New York State must pay the accrued interest to the federal government by Sept. 30th, 2022.
NFIB has long called on New York’s leadership to use federal pandemic aid to pay down the UI debt, pay the interest on the debt, and restore state UI tax rates to pre-pandemic levels. More than 30 states have used federal assistance to eliminate their UI debt, preventing unnecessary tax increases on small businesses emerging from the pandemic.
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For nearly 80 years, NFIB has been the voice of small business, advocating on behalf of America’s small and independent business owners, both in Washington, D.C., and in all 50 state capitals. NFIB is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and member driven. Since our founding in 1943, NFIB has been exclusively dedicated to small and independent businesses and remains so today. For more information, please visit www.NFIB.com.
