With unemployment levels still at record highs (see WIT for Jan. 24, 2003), the New York State Department of Labor announced yesterday that $760 million in federal loans it received last month will not be enough to keep the state unemployment insurance program solvent through March as originally predicted (see WIT for Jan. 29, 2003). The State Labor Department has requested an additional $400 million in loans from the Federal Department of Labor to carry the state unemployment insurance fund through March, and another $460 million for the months of April and May---bringing the total debt of the state fund to $1.6 billion. Possibly exacerbated by Governor George Pataki's reductions in unemployment taxes prior to 9/11, the huge shortfall in the state pension plan has led to growing attempts by state officials to deny benefits to qualified individuals according to advocacy groups for the unemployed.
See LESLIE EATON, The New York Times, February 27, 2003