Massachusetts will pay the federal government $2.1 billion of the $2.5 billion it misspent under former Republican Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration. Gov. Maura Healey’s (D-MA) administration announced Monday that the state reached a settlement with former President Joe Biden’s administration last Friday to pay back most of what it misspent to pay jobless claims.

Massachusetts is facing the fallout from a massive money mistake and now owes the federal government $2.1 billion. Gov. Maura Healey says the issue stems from federal COVID-19 funds being used to pay unemployment benefits the state should have covered.

Negotiating the $2.5B liability down to $2.1B is important, but this high cost cannot be simply added to the very high cost of doing business in the Commonwealth,” Hurst said