A scheduled vote on a bill that would change the rates of unemployment compensation taxes and the way jobless claims are paid out was postponed in a state Senate committee meeting Monday.
Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, who filed Senate Bill 728 and who chairs the Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee, said she had wanted to rush through a committee vote but put it off to allow more time for discussion, debate and to make any changes.
The initial urgency was needed, Detert said, because Floridas unemployment compensation fund is $2 billion in the hole, and interest payments on loans from the federal government are due later this year.
Businesses this year are already receiving their bills on just the interest on the debt, Detert said.
Some businesses are looking favorably on the bill that would require a skills assessment when filing for unemployment benefits and readjusting the threshold of proof for disputed claims in the favor of businesses. Employers say the current threshold makes it nearly impossible to fire workers for cause without paying them jobless benefits.
Detert said the new threshold would create a level playing field and that the skills assessment would create much-needed accountability for recipients of jobless benefits.
Right now, nobody makes you get a job, nobody makes sure youre looking for a job, Detert said.
Businesses complaining about the minimum unemployment compensation tax being nearly tripled from $25.20 per worker last year to $72.10 per worker this year were reminded that they have only themselves to blame.
Amnesia is a terrible thing in politics and policy. We had some business people last year saying put this off and borrow from the federal government, kick the can down the road. Im now getting e-mails from the same people saying were shocked, shocked that you borrowed money from the federal government to pay this unemployment compensation tax, Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, said.
Despite the built-in benefits for businesses in the bill, some employers will be hit with still-larger taxes. In the bill, businesses that use the unemployment compensation fund the most (like big companies that have laid off large numbers of workers) will be taxed at a higher rate than those that hold onto workers.
The outcry is going to come when you have a guy saying, I never laid off anybody and my rates just quadrupled, Detert said.
But larger companies with extensive payrolls are already paying more into the jobless benefits fund. The maximum rate is $378 per employee.
Thats something well have to look at, Detert said.
Detert added that she will gather input from Gov. Rick Scott and the state House this week, where there's a committee bill that would reduce the number of weeks unemployment compensation claims are paid. The Commerce and Tourism Committee is now scheduled to vote on the proposal in two weeks.
Despite the delay, some type of jobless benefits reform is expected this year.
This is the year of reform, this is the year it has to be done, Detert said.
Reach Gray Rohrer at grohrer@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
