By Jerry Nowicki
Capitol News Illinois
SPRINGFIELD — Gov. JB Pritzker isn’t considering using federal American Rescue Plan Act funding to pay down a multi-billion-dollar Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund deficit, and he’s watching the state’s COVID-19 hospitalization numbers closely.
Those were two of the topics discussed during a 10-minute interview with Capitol News Illinois on Wednesday as part of a two-day media tour held by Pritzker after his Monday announcement that he was seeking reelection in 2022. You can listen to the full interview on Capitol Cast here.
The reason Pritzker won’t consider using federal ARPA funds on the $4.2 billion Trust Fund deficit, he said, is because he did not believe it a permissible use of the funding, and he is hopeful that the federal government will provide aid or rule changes to accommodate the 17 states that have outstanding federal borrowing balances in their trust funds amounting to $54 billion cumulatively.