Businesses heave sigh of relief over unemployment fund — but hope for more

For the Maryland business community, Gov. Larry Hogan’s Wednesday announcement that over a quarter of the $3.9 billion in federal relief funds that had been allocated to the state would go into the state’s unemployment insurance trust fund came as a major relief. Over $1.7 billion in unemployment benefits had been distributed from the fund since the pandemic’s onset in March, and business owners have been concerned that they will have to pay massive taxes in order to make up the difference, despite having also lost significant revenue themselves over the past few years.