By AP/KWMU
Kansas City, MO – Missouri officials say at the current rate, the account from which unemployment checks are written will dry up early next year.
The Kansas City Star reports that checks written to unemployed Missouri residents have dwarfed funds received from a tax on employers.
Heightened unemployment rates and an extended economic downturn have combined to drain the fund, and the head of the state's Division of Employment Security says that fund will likely spend its last $200 million by the first quarter next year.
Missouri could then borrow money from a federal bailout fund, but the state would have to repay those monies with interest.