Reports surfaced yesterday that Florida's trust fund for unemployment benefits is depleted, and employers will have to now pay much higher taxes to refill it.
As the Times reports:
The minimum annual rate — charged to an employer with a solid history of retaining employees — will jump almost twelvefold, from $8.40 per employee to $100.30, revenue officials said Wednesday. The maximum rate, currently $378 per employee, would rise to $459.
A serious situation no doubt, and it's allowing state Democrats to chide state Republicans "I told you so."
Told them what?
You'll remember when the stimulus bill passed in February? Several GOP Governors (many coincidentally considered to harbor possible Presidential ambitions, such as South Carolina's Rick Sanford, Alaska's Sarah Palin and Louisiana's Bobby Jindal ) publicly discussed rejecting some of those funds, because of various reasons (such as Republicans simply didn't like the bill).
Not nearly that well discussed (except in some quarters) was that the Florida Legislature did the same thing, rejecting $444 million in stimulus money to help fund unemployment insurance coverage.
One of the biggest critics of the legislature's rejection of the money was Democratic State Senator Dan Gelber, who spoke to me on several occasions on WMNF radio about why it was a major mistake.
Gelber said that by modernizing unemployment compensation insurance, at least 27,0000 more Floridians would have been able to collect unemployment.
Yesterday Democratic Congressman and U.S. Senate hopeful Kendrick Meek sent Governor Charlie Crist a letter, asking the question du jour to the guv: Are you for the stimulus or not?
As Meek writes:
"The Legislature was required to pass a legislative fix to state law to comply with federal guidelines and receive these funds. ….Our neighbor Georgia, a state led by Republican Governor Sonny Purdue and a Republican-controlled legislature, passed the necessary legislation, yet Florida did not even allow this issue to move forward in the legislative process."
Actually, Crist did and does support doing what is necessary to qualify for the federal funds — but House Speaker Larry Cretul does not. Cretul's spokeswoman, Jill Chamberlin, said yesterday, "The federal money would have run out, and the state would still be obliged to cover the extra people."
But the Miami Herald reports;
State Representative Kelly Skidmore, Democrat from Boca Raton, said earlier this year that the state could avoid this problem simply by repealing the expanded benefits after the money arrives from Washington. She obtained a letter from the federal Labor Department to that effect.
Senator Gelber spoke eloquently about changing the law after receiving the money as well. But apparently, Florida Republicans – and not Charlie Crist – think that's simply not possible, as $444 million to deal with this issue remains in Washington.
This article appears in Nov 18-24, 2009.