Website upgrade will cost $73M
Unemployment overhaul to take 2 years to complete
Overhauling the state’s maligned unemployment compensation website will take two years and cost $73 million — almost as much as Florida paid for the $77 million system back in 2013, state senators were told Monday.
“We are far behind from where we need to be,” said Dane Eagle, executive director of the Department of Economic Opportunity, citing an independent report by ISF Inc. commissioned by the state that was released late Friday. “Of course, this comes with a price.”
It was the first time since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic nearly a year ago that the head of Florida’s unemployment agency met with lawmakers to discuss how to address the state’s antiquated
“I appreciate the fact that you’re focusing today on the computer system and modernizing it, but as others have already mentioned, you can modernize the computer system all you want, but if you don’t modernize the under policy that directs the system we’re nowhere.” Karen Woodall, executive director for the Florida Center on Fiscal and Economic Policy.
system. Republican lawmakers refused to convene for a special session last year.
Eagle said it could cost as much as $244 million over the next five years to run the system, including $24 million for website maintenance and $146 million to sustain the additional servers, employees and software that the agency needed mid-pandemic to keep up with the deluge of unemployment claims. Those costs could come down, he said, as employment improves.
The plan also calls for DEO to bring on 435 employees to help process applications.
Eagle said the agency also is working with Sen. Aaron Bean and Rep. Chip LaMarca, both Republicans, who are expected to file legislation to create the Office of Economic Accountability and Transparency and the Reemployment Assistance Modernization Strategic Planning Office to oversee the modernization process.
“The CONNECT system was not designed nor developed to process the volume of claims received during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the report states. “This unprecedented stress test revealed weaknesses in the CONNECT system that must be addressed.”
In total, the DEO received over 6.4 million applications since March — 1 million more than the state received during the previous eight years combined. When state unemployment peaked at 13.8%, the agency was receiving 500,000 new applications every week.
At one point in April, DEO had managed to process just 4% of the 850,000 claims it received, spurring Gov. Ron DeSantis to order a state investigation into the system.
“Not the dot-com bubble, not hurricanes of category 3, 4 and 5 sizes, the aftermath of the World Trade Center, even the Great Recession could have given us any anticipation of what we would experience this past year,” said Eagle, a former Republican lawmaker from Cape Coral who was appointed to lead DEO in September.
However, several audits of the system over the years have exposed problems with the website, one as recently as 2019.
“This CONNECT system is garbage and everyone has known that and there’s been reports about how bad it was prior to the pandemic,” said Sen. Randolph Bracy, a Democrat from Ocoee who’s filed legislation to increase benefits. “Why wasn’t there an effort to deal with the CONNECT system before we got to the pandemic?”
Eagle said the agency was in the process of upgrading the system before the pandemic hit.
But in addition to technology upgrades, Democratic lawmakers and workers advocates said the Legislature needs to reform the policies around unemployment. After the Republican-controlled legislature gutted the system in 2011 to cut taxes for business, Floridians could only collect up to $275 per week in benefits for 12 weeks, and most of the state’s self-employed residents, independent contractors and gig workers were disqualified from collecting benefits.
“I appreciate the fact that you’re focusing today on the computer system and modernizing it, but as others have already mentioned, you can modernize the computer system all you want, but if you don’t modernize the under policy that directs the system we’re nowhere,” said Karen Woodall, executive director for the Florida Center on Fiscal and Economic Policy.
Already, multiple bills have been filed seeking to reform Florida’s unemployment program. One from Rep. Jason Brodeur, a Seminole County Republican who voted to cut unemployment benefits back in 2011, would increase maximum weekly payouts from $275 to $375.
Other proposals filed by Democrats call for more drastic changes.
Orlando Rep. Anna Eskamani, for instance, filed a bill that would raise weekly payouts to $500 and allow Floridians to stay in the system for 26 weeks. It would also impose a threeweek deadline for the DEO to process applications, expand eligibility and allow applicants to automatically collect benefits from the time they lost their job instead of from when they submitted a claim.
Another from Sen. Annette Taddeo, of MiamiDade County, would increase the number of weeks residents can collect unemployment to as many as 46, when unemployment rises above 10.5%.
During Monday’s meeting, Eagle did not discuss possible policy changes, saying he believed discussions around upgrading the computer system would be “less controversial.”
“I can’t speak for the governor, but at the department, we decided that the best proposals we could bring forward are those which might be less controversial that everybody could get behind, that are IT and process-focused for efficient payment,” Eagle said. “Obviously, there’s discussions out there on many bills with committee members on rates and weeks but we figured that was best left up to them and their discussions.”