How Gov. Justice's massive transfer of pandemic aid to a jobless trust fund didn't do much for some

How Gov. Justice’s massive transfer of pandemic aid to a jobless trust fund didn’t do much for some WV businesses


When Gov. Jim Justice announced earlier this month that he had put hundreds of millions of dollars in federal pandemic relief aid into West Virginia’s unemployment trust fund, he said it would lead to a “massive reduction” in business costs.

But, for many West Virginia businesses, the savings are sparse. While Justice’s move will lead to a 25% reduction in unemployment taxes, for a lot of businesses that amounts to a savings of less than $100 per employee.

“I don’t see that as massive at all,” said Michelle Jack, owner of Sweet-A-Licious, an ice cream shop in Buckhannon. With only five employees aside from herself and her husband, she has to pay a lot less in unemployment taxes than some bigger businesses, meaning the savings are a lot less too.

West Virginia received $1.25 billion from the CARES Act in April 2020. Justice has sole control of the money, and his spending priorities have been questioned for more than a year by West Virginians saying he isn’t using the funds to address the immediate needs of the pandemic.

Read more: https://mountainstatespotlight.org/2021/09/30/justice-wv-unemployment-trust-fund/