By Gene Meyer
January 20, 2010

(KansasReporter) TOPEKA, Kan.- Kansas' nearly-tapped-out unemployment insurance fund may have to borrow as much as $750 million this year to cover expected claims for jobless benefits, state Labor Secretary Jim Garner told legislators Wednesday.

The state's Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund, which last year paid 2.4 million jobless claims totaling more than $766 million was down to its last $65 million on Jan. 9 and likely will be exhausted in early February, Garner told members of the House Commerce and Labor Committee.

Taxes that some 69,500 Kansas businesses pay to top off the fund each year are scheduled to double in 2010, to almost $407 million, but the first of those quarterly payments won't be received until April.

Just 12 months ago, Kansas' unemployment fund was ranked 19th healthiest among 53 in the nation, Garner told committee members.

"We are going through an unprecedented time in unemployment insurance," Garner said.

At least 25 other states already have run through their own unemployment funds and are borrowing almost $30 billion from the federal government to continue paying benefits to jobless workers, Garner said. Ten more, including Kansas, are projected to join the list this  year.

"We are just a few weeks away," he said.

State Labor Department researchers don't look for much relief in labor markets anytime soon either, Garner said.  While Kansas' last reported statewide unemployment rate, 6.2 percent, trails the national average 10 percent, state researchers project that Kansas' average unemployment rate in all 2010 will land somewhere between 6.8 percent and 7.8 percent.

The U.S. Labor Department is scheduled to release its latest official estimate of Kansas unemployment Friday.