The $80 million price tag attached to the overhaul of the State’s unemployment insurance program could have been a lot lower had the legislature acted sooner.

State Representative Don Vruwink says that in 2007 it would have only cost $24 million to fix the system.

Vruwink says what’s worse is that since March the State has spent $22 million expanding it’s call center and paying for overtime to handle the backlog of unemployment claims.

Vruwink says there are still about 73,000 unemployment claims that are under review.