U.S. states are still repaying federal loans for unemployment benefits more than six years after the recession, costing businesses from mighty Apple Inc. to Ohio's humble Canton Chair Rental hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes and interest. And only a third of states are prepared for the next downturn.

Thirty-five states borrowed from a federal fund when dismissals from the 18-month recession that began in December 2007 depleted jobless benefit accounts. California, Ohio, and Connecticut are the only ones that haven't retired their debt, which businesses must repay through higher levies. California firms alone have already paid $1.8 billion though last year, and the loan isn't projected to be paid off until sometime in 2018.

"This is money that we should not be paying out," said Ginny Grome of Restaurant Management Inc. in Cincinnati, which owns 65 Arby's restaurants in seven states and has paid almost $218,000 in extra taxes because of Ohio's outstanding loan. "That's a lot of money as far as reinvesting or how many more employees could we have had."