Editor’s Note: This is an updated version of an earlier story.
Approximately 73,000 Connecticut companies are getting bills from the state for their share of interest on $810 million the state borrowed from Uncle Sam to pay extended unemployment insurance benefits, officials say.
Connecticut employers are required to pay $30 million in interest costs to the federal government in 2011, the state Labor Department’s tax division said Friday.
Employers have been assessed $1.70 per $1,000 of taxable payroll, or a maximum of $25.50 per worker.
Since federal law does not permit this interest charge to be paid for from funds employers pay into the state’s unemployment insurance trust fund, the labor agency said state law provides for a separate billing to collect the funds needed to pay interest charges.
State Sen. John A. Kissel (R-Enfield) attacked the surcharge.
“They call it a ‘special assessment’, but this really is a hidden tax on Connecticut businesses,” Kissel said in a statement Friday. “And it could not come at a worse time. The public needs to know that this is just the beginning of the pain for state businesses. The August surcharge only addresses the interest on the federal loan and not the principal.”
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