{"id":1920302,"date":"2023-04-27T16:42:38","date_gmt":"2023-04-27T20:42:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-su-tax-california-businesses-are-still-paying-for-biden-nominee-julie-sus-31b-mistake\/"},"modified":"2023-04-27T16:42:38","modified_gmt":"2023-04-27T20:42:38","slug":"the-su-tax-california-businesses-are-still-paying-for-biden-nominee-julie-sus-31b-mistake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-su-tax-california-businesses-are-still-paying-for-biden-nominee-julie-sus-31b-mistake\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u2018Su Tax\u2019: California Businesses Are Still Paying for Biden Nominee Julie Su\u2019s $31B Mistake"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-su-tax-california-businesses-are-still-paying-for-biden-nominee-julie-sus-31b-mistake%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1920302&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div>\n<p>Julie Su is on Capitol Hill auditioning to be President Joe Biden\u2019s next labor secretary, but back in her home state of California, businesses are paying what some call the &#8220;Su Tax&#8221;\u2014a hike in payroll taxes to make up for the massive fraud that took place on her watch during the COVID-19 pandemic.\t<\/p>\n<p>Nearly 60 California businesses and agriculture groups complained last month that their four million-plus members face escalating payroll taxes to bail out the state\u2019s insolvent unemployment insurance fund. The groups warned state legislative leaders that the taxes\u2014which could exceed $400 per worker each year\u2014threaten employee-heavy small businesses and restaurants that were already <a href=\"https:\/\/spectrumnews1.com\/ca\/la-west\/inside-the-issues\/2021\/02\/05\/-los-angeles-suffers-most-small-businesses-losses-during-pandemic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">devastated<\/a> by California Democrats\u2019 strict COVID-19 lockdowns.<\/p>\n<p>The business groups did not mention Su by name, but they noted how California\u2019s unemployment insurance fund spent up to $31 billion on payouts for fraudulent claims when she was the state labor secretary. After presiding over the fund\u2019s fall into insolvency, Su left to become the Biden administration\u2019s deputy labor secretary.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;California\u2019s businesses \u2026 had no control over [the fund\u2019s] mistaken distribution of the employer-funded UI funds\u2013but now California employers are being taxed for these policies,&#8221; the groups, led by the California Chamber of Commerce, wrote in a March 23 letter.<\/p>\n<p>Now, with Su seeking confirmation as Biden&#8217;s labor secretary, the plight of California businesses underscores <a href=\"https:\/\/www.capito.senate.gov\/news\/in-the-news\/wv-az-small-businesses-push-back-on-biden-nominee-julie-su\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">swing-vote senators&#8217;<\/a> concerns about her competence. The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/biden-administration\/senate-dems-advance-nomination-of-biden-labor-secretary-nominee-who-presided-over-mass-fraud-in-california\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">voted<\/a> along party lines Thursday to advance Su\u2019s nomination to a vote by the full chamber, but her confirmation remains very much in doubt.<\/p>\n<p>In California, some Republicans have taken to referring to the new costs of doing business as the &#8220;Su tax.&#8221; While Rep. Kevin Kiley (R., Calif.) was familiar with the term, he preferred a different monicker.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It\u2019s an incompetence tax: a price private citizens are being forced to pay for their government\u2019s failures,&#8221; Kiley told the<i data-stringify-type=\"italic\"> Washington Free Beacon.<\/i> &#8220;The predicament that small businesses in California now find themselves in\u2014facing double taxation to make up for the government\u2019s negligence\u2014is another example of why Julie Su\u2019s nomination to be our nation\u2019s next labor secretary is so ill-considered.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ranking committee member Bill Cassidy (R., La.) during Thursday\u2019s hearing voiced some of the objections to Su&#8217;s confirmation that Republican lawmakers and national business groups had raised.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Julie Su has an extensive record of partisan activism and promoting policies that undermine workers to the benefit of politically-connected labor unions,&#8221; Cassidy <a href=\"https:\/\/www.help.senate.gov\/ranking\/newsroom\/press\/ranking-member-cassidy-opposes-julie-su-for-dol-secretary-during-committee-vote\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a>. &#8220;A qualified Secretary of Labor needs to successfully handle negotiations, manage a department properly, and refrain from partisan activism. I haven\u2019t seen evidence of Julie Su\u2019s ability to do any of those three things.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>At a HELP committee hearing last week, Su <a href=\"https:\/\/www.romney.senate.gov\/romney-to-su-promoting-you-to-lead-the-department-of-labor-makes-no-sense-at-all\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">insisted<\/a> that she had moved swiftly to stop California from being defrauded during the pandemic. But her testimony was directly contradicted by federal and California state audits, which found that, under Su, California&#8217;s Division of Labor Standards Enforcement failed to act for months to stop the fraud despite repeated warnings.<\/p>\n<p>According to the audits and to Su\u2019s own directives, she tossed safeguards out the window to pump unemployment dollars to the millions of people who were rendered jobless during the state\u2019s long COVID-19 lockdown. Early on, Su <a href=\"https:\/\/www.labor.ca.gov\/2020\/04\/23\/labor-secretary-issues-directive-to-employment-development-department-to-suspend-unemployment-insurance-certifications\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">suspended<\/a> a requirement that unemployment insurance recipients check in every two weeks to prove they still qualify for benefits\u2014arguing the state could not otherwise keep up with the staggering number of claims. The unemployment insurance fund also <a href=\"http:\/\/auditor.ca.gov\/reports\/2020-628.2\/sections.html#section1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">paid<\/a> claims to parties its own analysis flagged as suspicious\u2014which California\u2019s watchdog deemed a &#8220;lax approach.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A federal audit, meanwhile, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oig.dol.gov\/public\/reports\/oa\/2022\/19-22-006-03-315.pdf\">found<\/a> that California transferred one fraudster $1.6 million in unemployment benefits over 164 days.<\/p>\n<p>Ahead of Su&#8217;s nomination to deputy labor secretary in January 2021, she <a href=\"https:\/\/abc7news.com\/california-edd-unemployment-fraud-ca-scam-insurance\/10011810\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">acknowledged<\/a> that her agency wasted as much as $31 billion in pandemic unemployment insurance payments\u2014more than any other state. &#8220;There is no sugar coating the reality, California did not have sufficient security measures in place to prevent this level of fraud,&#8221; she said at the time.<\/p>\n<p>More than two years later, California\u2019s unemployment insurance fund is still nearly $20 billion in the red. Since federal law decrees that the fund must be replenished, the burden falls on California businesses through a reduction of their tax credits. The businesses\u2014already among the nation\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pacificresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/SmBusinessIndex_UpdatedVersion2_web.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">most heavily<\/a> taxed and regulated\u2014will pay for the state\u2019s errors starting with a $21-per-employee increase in their payroll taxes. The tax bump will rise every year that the fund remains insolvent, maxing out at $434 per worker, with no exemption for small businesses.\t<\/p>\n<p>As the business groups pointed out in their letter, California Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s (D.) latest <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.ca.gov\/2023\/01\/10\/2023-24-state-budget-invests-in-californians-while-safeguarding-states-future\/#:~:text=SACRAMENTO%20%E2%80%93%20Governor%20Gavin%20Newsom%20today,economic%20and%20revenue%20uncertainties%20ahead.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">budget<\/a> does not address the fund\u2019s insolvency, and there is no plan in place to make it whole.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Just as COVID-19 was a statewide public emergency and went beyond individual private employers,&#8221; the groups wrote, &#8220;the cost of COVID-19 on California\u2019s UI Fund should not fall on private employers alone.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Julie Su is on Capitol Hill auditioning to be President Joe Biden\u2019s next labor secretary, but back in her home state of California, businesses are paying what some call the &#8220;Su Tax&#8221;\u2014a hike in payroll taxes to make up for the massive fraud that took place on her watch during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly 60<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1604,"featured_media":1920303,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[544],"tags":[25313,25312,3620,6002,4045,15356,4953,4904,13194,25314,8360],"class_list":["post-1920302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-free-beacon","tag-su","tag-31b","tag-biden","tag-businesses","tag-california","tag-julie","tag-mistake","tag-nominee","tag-paying","tag-sus","tag-tax"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1920302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1604"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1920302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1920302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1920303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1920302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1920302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1920302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}