California still owes big bucks for unemployment insurance

The Sacramento Bee reports:

As severe recession struck the nation a half-decade ago, California and most other states borrowed heavily from the federal government to prop up their unemployment insurance programs.

At one time, the states owed Washington more than $47 billion, but the debt has since been cut by more than half to $21 billion, and many of the debtor states have completely erased their negative balances, according to a nationwide survey by Stateline, a website on state government affairs maintained by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

But not California. The state began borrowing in 2009 and accounted for more than $10 billion of the debt at its peak, but it has declined only slightly - thanks to a political stalemate in the Capitol - and California now accounts for nearly half of the national debt total.

The great moments of Blue America.