Illinois lawmaker considers sending Pritzker a message with agency cuts to get answers on unemployment issues

(The Center Square) – A state lawmaker said the Illinois legislature might have to flex its appropriations muscle to get information from the Pritzker administration about the state’s fraud-plagued unemployment system.

State Rep. Mike Marron, R-Fithian, has for months demanded action to address problems his constituents are facing, like being asked to pay back unemployment benefits they’ve already received.

“It’s a huge issue back in my district with small business owners, partially the hair salon owners, you know people that aren’t getting grinch by any means, so we need answers to those situations,” Marron said Thursday.

The Pritzker administration said it could take weeks to implement the recently approved waiver of those unemployment overpayments. The waiver was part of the most recent federal COVID-19 relief package approved last month.

It’s also been months since Hoffman Estates Democratic state Rep. Fred Crespo has been demanding information on other problems to no avail. He said if lawmakers don’t get answers, they may withhold funding.

“Through the appropriation process, if they don’t meet us halfway, give us the information that we need, we might just decide, hey, you know what we’re going to hold up some of these funds, even federal dollars,” Crespo said Thursday.

He said it’s not a threat. He’s gotten the attention of previous administrations by threatening the cut funding, saying the legislature has the power of appropriations.

“It’s not a threat, I think it’s more, I think it’s an education,” Crespo said. “They’re new and make sure they understand the process.”

The Illinois Department of Employment Security is a state-run, federally funded agency that operates under Gov. J.B. Pritzker. Pritzker is starting his third year in office.

Unemployment, driven by pandemic-related business slowdowns and government-ordered shutdowns, has ballooned in Illinois. Just last week, there were another nearly 97,000 initial unemployment filers. That’s more than 45,000 more than the week before. The total number of insured unemployed is 362,000, or more than 31,000 more than the week before.

“That’s based on what they’re processing,” Crespo said. “We don’t know how many are not even making it into the pipeline, there may be even more. So I would suggest that the situation is even worse than what they’re telling us.”

Marron said his constituents continue to have problems with unemployment and he can’t get answers.

“We just need to get some solutions to these problems, and it’s my hope that the 102nd General Assembly will be discussing them and finding out how we can move forward and get these problems solved,” Marron said.

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