Paid leave in financial troubles

The number of people tapping the taxpayer-provided Paid Family and Medical Leave fund is increasing every year.

The paid-leave program was launched in 2020. It imposes a tax on employers and workers, whether or not the workers ever use the program. The money is used to allow some workers taxpayer-paid time off if they have a serious health condition, need to care for people or want to bond with a new child on taxpayers’ dimes.

If you build it they will come. And they did.

The Employment Security Department shows that in the program’s first year, 112,737 people were approved. In 2023, the numbe...