The federal government added $600 a week to people’s Unemployment Compensation (UC) checks for the first several months of the pandemic to help bolster the economy. However, the sharp spike in unemployment rates hit the states hard as they had to disperse funds for the regular portion of UC. Now twenty states have started to borrow money from the federal government to cover costs.
Here’s the status of Pennsylvania, according to a Pew Stateline report: “Pennsylvania had just this year finished paying off $2.8 billion in bond funds borrowed for unemployment benefits in the Great Recession. Last week the state announced plans to borrow $2.8 billion in three months to get through October.”
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I think this topic is a demonstration of the long term issues that the pandemic will have on the economy. This new debt from states will be interesting to follow as we might see local taxes increase in order to pay it off to the federal government in the next few years. I also think it is very surprising to me just how long it took to pay off the last debt. It makes me wonder what the future of Pennsylvania’s government will look like in the aftermath of the shutdown.
I think this is a good topic to talk about. I see what the government was trying to do but I think the extra 600$ a week wasn’t a smart move. I think it’s just going to make our debt just so much harder to get out of once again. The last debt took us so long to get out of I can’t even imagine how long this one will take. Also I think maybe our local taxes might increase just to try and pay off this debt but it will be very interesting to follow and keep up with the next couple of years.
I am interested to observe how this will affect other areas of PA’s budget. In regards to public schools, streets and sanitation funds, these areas could be affected or “dipped into to cover some expenses. Also, since this debt is so large, taxes could increase and will cause other concerns. Following budgets and funds after this will be something interesting to analyze over next few years.
I think that the consequences of this shutdown and the partial opening of businesses will have so much negative effects on the lives of many segments of the society. What we always concentrate on is the economical effects. But there are many other issues and effects that should be brought to light, like the psychological effects of these shut down policies on the people, especially the youth, where depression and other mental issues are skyrocketing. The Governors should ease the restriction on penning the businesses of the people. We shouldn’t make the cure worse than the disease.
I think the unemployment compensation is a good thing for Pennsylvanians because a lot of people are jobless due to COVID-19. I do think $600 is a little too much money because a lot of jobs make less than that so its encouraging people to stop working. On the other hand some people desperately need it because of the effect of pandemic on jobs throughout the country. Handing out a lot of money like the state and national governments have been doing will put the states in deep amounts of debt along with the country itself.