W.Va. Jobless Fund Running Out of Money

The fund that provides benefits to unemployed West Virginians while they seek work is in danger of going broke, with its balance dropping below $100 million, The Associated Press reports.

If recession-induced economic woes continue, and in the absence of any state action, officials tell AP that the compensation trust fund will run out of money by the fall.

West Virginia would then endure a painful replay from the 1980s, when it was forced to borrow from the federal government to keep benefits flowing.

At least 30 states, including all five of West Virginia's neighbors, have already taken that route to the combined tune of nearly $33 billion, the article said.

But the state's fund would be on the very brink of insolvency if not for last year's legislation that transferred $40 million into the trust fund while hiking employer payments by an equal amount, AP reports. It ended February with around $93 million.