By Sascha Cordner
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Tallahassee, FL – Both the House and Senate are battling it out over one of the provisions of an unemployment compensation reform bill. As Sascha Cordner reports, the sponsors of the competing bills cannot come to a compromise on the number of weeks unemployment benefits should be offered.
House Bill 7005 would make reforms to the state's unemployment compensation system, including making it more difficult to qualify for benefits. The bill's sponsor, Republican Senator Nancy Detert of Venice says the measure is a snapshot of what is going on in Florida today and it does a lot for the business community.
"We have over one-million people unemployed, we also have businesses going out of business, we have businesses paying high unemployment rates, and out unemployment trust fund went from 2-million dollars to 0 to where we're borrowing from the federal government. So, this bill provides great language for businesses, it provides changes for claimants to unemployment, and it works towards the goal of making out unemployment comp trust fund healthy again."
Both the House and Senate agreed to base unemployment compensation benefits on the unemployment rate, but they differ in the amount of weeks to receive the benefits. Republican Representative Doug Holder of Sarasota wants the bill to include a 20-week limit and offered a compromise raising it to 23, but the Senate did not want to budge and passed the House version with amended changes, keeping the limit at 26 weeks, which is current law.
Detert proceeded to breaking down the numbers further, tying the number of weeks to receiving state benefits.
"At 5-percent unemployment, you would get a maximum benefit of 12 weeks and it goes up. To hit 20 weeks, you would have to have 9-percent unemployment. And to hit 26 weeks, which is what our bill calls for, you'd have to have 12-percent unemployment. So, at today's current rate of 11-percent unemployment, you would be entitled to 24 weeks."
But, several democrats, including Senator Arthenia Joyner of Tampa, say the bill is looking more "business-friendly" as opposed to helping the unemployed. She spoke to the part of the bill about how only those actively looking for a job would be able to receive these benefits.
"I'm unemployed and I'm doing everything I can to get a job, and rather than having a finite period of time, we're on a tiered system based on whether rates are up or down. You know, we need to look at the balance here we talk about the business community, but we also have a lot of people out there who [seriously] pursue jobs every day."
Joyner says lawmakers are hurting the unemployed during these bad economic times.
"We're kicking them to the curb at time when in this country, times are bad the Medicaid rolls are full, the food stamp lines are long, and people standing on corners saying please."
Democratic Senator Oscar Braynon of Miami Gardens says even though he voted for the bill in past committees, he could no longer support the measure after it went through so many changes when the Senate tried to compromise with the House, and took out some of the original provisions.
"Specifically this tiered system, where I know that I am unemployed, I don't know if I care or a person would care if the unemployment rate is 5-percent, I just hope that I get it. I mean it's almost like saying when the crime rate is down but your house just broke into, you really don't care the crime rate is down. So, I really can't support you on this one, but I thank you for your work on trying to stand fast on our position."
Echoing Senator Braynon's remarks, Democratic Senator Anthony Hill of Jacksonville says though he knows the good work Senator Detert put into her original bill, the bill as it is now needs more work.
"This House Bill is an atrocious bill to workers in the state of Florida and members we need to go back home to stand up on their behalf and I can tell you that it's already a Hercules exercise, I mean you have to go through so many criteria to get these benefits. And, So, I mean when people do all the right things, now we're going to cut the benefits back on them."
Senator Detert says she's happy many of the lawmakers could see she was trying to be fair at the same time as compromise with the House on their version of the bill. She gave an example of who her bill was going to help:
"One restaurant [owner] said to me he fired an employee for stealing and he lost the case in appeals because it wasn't in the policy manual that you can't steal. He said well, it's in the Bible, does that count? No! it doesn't count, it wasn't in the policy manual. So, that person got paid."
Detert says it's not that hard to collect unemployment insurance, it's really hard to win an appeals case. And, one of the provisions in her bill gives employers more control over challenging unemployment claims.
Other Senators worried about the jail aspect of the bill, which would prohibit those in jail from receiving any benefits.
A rally was held in Miami on Tuesday with many unemployed workers voicing their opposition about cutting the length of unemployment insurance from the original 26 week-limit, and hoping the State Representatives would not reduce the limit when the bill goes back to the House with its amended changes.
House Bill 7005 passed favorably in the Senate largely along party lines on a 29 to 10 vote.