Committee probes whether ACA 20 can help pay down unemployment‑insurance loan

Senators repeatedly raised the state's outstanding unemployment‑insurance (UI) loan as a use case for the additional debt‑payment authority ACA 20 would create. Senator Blake Spear asked how much of the UI loan might realistically be paid if the measure were approved; Carolyn Chu (LAO) said the choice of which liabilities to pay is a decision for the legislature and governor, and noted that annual debt payments under current rules have often been in the neighborhood of $2 billion.

Chu said the UI loan could be one of the eligible debts under ACA 20 and that payments in so‑called super‑excess capital‑gains years would be larger than typical years, but she cautioned the legislature would have to choose how to allocate those payments. "The UI alone could be one of them," she said, while also noting interest rates and the relative long‑term savings from paying down different liabilities vary by debt type. No commitment to a specific UI payoff schedule was made at the hearing.