Saying it will help businesses cut what they pay into the state unemployment compensation system so they can more quickly put people back to work, the Republican-controlled House on Thursday voted to shorten the number of weeks the jobless can collect unemployment.
Easy passage of the bill (HB 7005) came as state officials announced that the jobless rate remained in January at just under 12 percent, with a tiny tick downward giving only a little new hope of a recovery anytime soon. The bill, which quickly won praise from Gov. Rick Scott, now goes to the Senate, where the proposal’s fate is less certain.
A Senate effort to reduce unemployment costs to businesses has largely focused on trying to make it harder for people who shouldn’t be getting benefits to collect them. A bill under consideration in the Senate keeps the time that Florida residents can collect unemployment at 26 weeks before federal benefits kick in.
The House bill, which passed 81-38 along party lines, cuts the number of weeks of state eligibility to 20 if the unemployment rate stays high. If that rate were to drop, the number of weeks would get shorter under the bill. If the unemployment rate were to ever get below 5 percent again in the state, the maximum number of weeks would be 12.
The current maximum unemployment benefit dollar amount stays the same under the measure, at $275 a week, which opponents pointed out is already near the bottom of states. Federal statistics show the state’s average weekly benefit is just over $230.
Employers, who pay into a state trust fund on the first $7,000 of a worker’s wages, have complained that they’ve been hard hit by increases in the tax, which has gone up as unemployment has increased. Even worse for businesses, the state trust fund has dropped into the red and has had to borrow about $2 billion from the federal government to pay benefits. Interest on that is due, and that payment is being passed on to businesses.
The House bill also tries to make it harder for the undeserving to collect benefits.
The measure is the first major, substantive bill to pass the House this year.
“By linking the number of weeks a person can receive benefits to the state’s unemployment levels, we are creating an environment for Florida’s job creators to get the state back to work,” Scott said in a statement commending the House for its bill.
Rep. Doug Holder, R-Sarasota, sponsor of the bill in the House, said reducing the number of weeks of eligibility was important for the House as it begins to try to match up its measure with the Senate.
Passage came over objection of House Democrats, who argued that the measure favored businesses over people. Rep. Scott Randolph, D-Orlando, asked who would benefit from the money saved by businesses not having to pay more into the unemployment compensation system, and then answered his own question.
“Where does the money go? Much of it will go to shareholder profit and CEO bonuses,” predicted Randolph.
Rep. Ritch Workman, R-Melbourne, took objection to that – saying he would be helped by it because his small business would eventually get to reduce its unemployment tax burden.
“I am not a rich Wall Street fat cat,” Workman said.
Rep. Geraldine Thompson said unfortunate victims of the economy were being scapegoated.
“The unemployed among us are the victims of the recession, not the cause of it,” said Thompson, D-Orlando.
Another Democrat, however, Rep. Luis Garcia, said trying to help out businesses reel in high unemployment costs was noble, and agreed they need help too. But, he said, this is the worst time to do that because it would pile on more difficulty for people already stressed by being out of work.
“What we have here is the right bill at the wrong time,” said Garcia, D-Miami Beach. “You don’t cut benefits at a time when money is short.”
But Holder said Democrats were trying to preserve government help for the unemployed at the expense of helping employers create jobs that would tackle the problem more efficiently.
“They want jobs,” Holder said of Florida’s out of work. “Not unemployment compensation. Just jobs.” The measure could boost the economy and provide them, he said.
In addition to reducing the length of time the unemployed can collect benefits, the measure also requires a skills review for those applying for benefits and requires them to provide proof they’re actively seeking work.
By David Royse
The News Service of Florida
There needs to be some cuts somewhere. They didn’t do away with unemployment, just made it less time you can be on it. I have used unemployment once in my life and it was a needed benefit, but I did my best to find a job and I did. The taxpayers can’t always fit the bill for everyone.