Last week, Virginia Republicans blocked $125 million in federal stimulus money for the state’s unemployment system, a move we at the DLCC rightly called economic “sabotage.”

This week, we learn that the state’s unemployment trust fund is about to go broke, proving once and for all that Virginia Republicans’ stubbornness and ineptitude have no limits.

According to state researcher Donald Lillywhite, the state unemployment trust fund will run out of money by the end of the year. With the extra $125 million in stimulus funding, the system would still be in trouble, but "that would have enabled us to go longer without going broke.” Now the state is facing huge new debts and massive tax increases on businesses to cover the losses.

Supposedly, Republicans rejected the stimulus money to protect businesses from a tax increase of $4.56 per worker per year – an increase that would only happen if the state decided to keep two unemployment policy changes needed to qualify for the $125 million. If not, the program could return to its previous policies, costing businesses nothing.

But by protecting businesses from such a minuscule risk, state Republicans exposed them a massive tax hike when the trust fund runs out, from $95 to $201 per worker.

To put that in perspective, that’s a 111% tax increase worth $106 per worker per year – a tax hike 23 times bigger than the one Republicans claimed would stifle job growth. When and if that happens, Republicans will have only themselves and their penny-wise pound-foolish grandstanding to blame.

Sadly, ordinary Virginians will pay the price.