Gov. Rick Scott will shortly begin his assault on Florida’s unemployed. With the stroke of a pen Scott will reduce Florida’s already paltry unemployment compensation to the lowest in the nation. On Monday lawmakers sent to Scott’s desk for signature an unemployment compensation bill (HB 7005) that reduces the length of benefits and ties the length of payments to the health of the economy.
Although Florida’s unemployment benefits average a mere $230 a week, the bill cuts the maximum duration of state benefits from 26 weeks to 23 weeks if the unemployment rate remains above 10.5 percent. If the jobless rate falls below that, the duration of benefits declines to a minimum of 12 weeks if unemployment gets as low as 5 percent.
Currently the unemployment rate in Florida in April was 10.8 percent.
Scott has 15 days to sign the bill which has been criticized by unions while being applauded by businesses that have had to pay higher unemployment compensation rates, in the face of a lengthy economic downturn.
Business groups have also praised the bill because they say it provides more protections for employers who fire workers for unsatisfactory performance.
Scott, who likes to be known as the jobs governor came to office promising to create 700,000 jobs over seven years. In his first five months since taking office, he has managed to eliminate thousands of state workers’ jobs in the 2011-2012 budget signed into law last month and has not been successful in luring any new businesses to Florida.
His most recent announcement on the jobs front last week that Garda World Security Corp. planned on establishing its U.S. headquarters in Boca Raton, for which he took credit, had long been in the works with former Governor Charlie Crist. The deal was finalized in February earlier this year.
With more than 1 million Floridians out-of-work, Scott would need to do far more than trot out his tired “Let’s get to work” campaign slogan.
As the summer heat descends on Florida we find ourselves losing jobs, losing hope with the wrecking ball in the governor’s mansion.
