Expanding Unemployment Insurance Benefits – All Pain for No Gain Wayne Winegarden April 2024 SB 1434 would dramatically expand unemployment insurance benefits to current eligible workers. If implemented, it would expand benefits by over 55 percent, raise the number of workers who qualify for maximum benefits, increase the benefits for workers who hold two jobs but lost one, and create a new “Excluded Workers Fund.” The specific tax increases necessary to fund the expansions are ...

Reparations: A Financially Unrealistic Proposal That Will Bankrupt California Wayne Winegarden February 2024 With the introduction of its first set of reparations bills, the California legislature is officially considering the recommendations of the California Reparations Report from the state Reparations Task Force.1 Given these introductions, it is imperative to understand the financial implications. Some basic arithmetic demonstrates that the idea of reparations is fiscally unrealistic. According to the U.S. Census,2 there are 2.5 million “black ...