With more than 1 million Floridians jobless and unemployment compensation rates climbing, state business leaders Tuesday heaped blame on those out-of-work for gaming the system.
Samantha Hunter Padgett, deputy general counsel for the Florida Retail Federation, told a House subcommittee that eligibility standards for unemployment benefits should be toughened, deriding a system which she said is unfairly skewed toward those laid-off, fired or downsized.
Hunter Padgett, representing a coalition of the state’s biggest business groups, said current law requires that benefit eligibility be “liberally construed” to favor the unemployed, who can draw benefits of as much as $275-a-week.
Businesses are intent on tilting that balance away from workers, she said.
“We don’t believe that anybody should have an advantage,” Hunter Padgett told the Economic Development & Tourism Subcommittee.
The coalition is recommending a host of changes to unemployment eligibility, generally making it tougher for those losing jobs to draw benefits and empowering employers who challenge a fired worker’s claim. Florida’s unemployment rate is 12 percent and new Gov. Rick Scott has come into office promising to make job creation his central focus.
The proposals coming from the Retail Federation, Chamber of Commerce, Associated Industries of Florida, Florida TaxWatch and others, also emphasize stricter standards for workers to prove they are actively seeking work, possible drug-testing for those who lose jobs, and denying benefits to those who’ve received severance packages or other job-terminating payments.
The push comes even as business groups are panicking with this year’s minimum unemployment rate scheduled to climb from $25 per worker to $72.10 per worker this spring. Employers pay the full rate.
In June, another $10 will be added on to cover interest payments on the $1.8 billion the state has borrowed from the federal government the past two years to help pay benefits.
Business groups are asking lawmakers to cover the interest payments – totaling $61.4 million – with taxpayer money this spring. They are also expected to push for a delay or taxpayer bailout for the pending, almost threefold rate hike.
The organizations, however, have failed to reach agreement on restructuring how businesses pay into the unemployment fund. Some business associations, such as the Retail Federation, support continuing making companies who have laid-off more workers pay higher unemployment compensation rates.
Others, however, such as the development industry, which has dramatically shed jobs, want to pay lower rates to help them rebuild.
On rate-paying, “It’s hard for us to come to a consensus,” Hunter Padgett conceded.
Rep. Doug Holder, R-Sarasota, chairman of the House subcommittee, said legislation will emerge in coming weeks.
“I think the main part of this is that we get Floridians back to work, so that people don’t just become complacent and make the financial changes…to accommodate a much lower income and just live off unemployment,” Holder said.
By John Kennedy
