Bill would cut Florida jobless benefits
Florida residents who lose their jobs will get fewer unemployment benefits than residents in any other state if a House bill reducing benefits is passed, says a national advocacy group for the unemployed.Republican legislators said the cuts are necessary to protect Florida’s business climate. But benefits experts say Florida’s unemployed will get penalized twice.At issue are the federal unemployment benefits that kick in after state benefits are exhausted. House sponsors of HB 7005 said reducing the state’s payment would not cut the federal entitlement the unemployed can claim. But not everyone agrees.”The Florida proposal would leave the state’s unemployed workers with much less economic protection than unemployed workers in any other state in the country,” said George Wentworth, a lawyer for the National Employment Law Project, which analyzed the benefit cut.The bill, which goes to the House floor this week, shortens benefits from the 75-year national standard of 26 weeks to 20 weeks in Florida, if the jobless rate is 9 percent or higher. If the unemployment rate drops to 5 percent or below, the benefit would be reduced to 12 weeks. A week would be added for each 0.5 percent increase in the unemployment rate.Wentworth said shortening state benefits would reduce federally paid extended benefits as well, from a maximum of 53 weeks to 40 weeks. Federal benefits are based on a percentage of the maximum compensation provided under state law, he said. “It’s probably the worst time you could ever cut back the number of weeks,” said Wentworth, who noted that 43 percent of the unemployed are out of work six months or longer, according to labor statistics.Unemployment benefits have proven to be a key stimulus to Florida’s economy, putting over $9 billion into the state’s economy since the start of the recession, according to a report released Thursday from the Research Institute on Social & Economic Policy at Florida International University in Miami.But Gov. Rick Scott and Republican legislators say what most matters is the state’s business climate, so it’s critical to reduce unemployment insurance taxes for employers. That is one element to retaining and attracting business to the state, they contend. The House bill’s measure cutting state jobless benefits supports Scott’s budget proposal to reduce unemployment taxes for employers by $630.8 million.
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