State Comptroller Susana Mendoza is taking a victory lap. She’s announced a full payoff – two years early – of a $4.5 billion loan for unemployment insurance during the pandemic.

“Taxpayers some way were going to be subsidizing folks not going bankrupt and being able to weather the storm of the pandemic. Thats what this money was there for,” said Mendoza.

“It was a safety net for so many people who couldn’t work, and it was an absolute necessity, given that we were going through a pandemic.”

Gov. JB Pritzker approved a supplemental budget that included the last $1.37 billion of that federal loan.