Fla. Democrats’ jobless reform bill would raise benefits
Democrats on Thursday unveiled a bill that would reform Florida’s unemployment system, by expanding eligibility and doubling how many weeks unemployed workers could collect benefits.
Drafted by State Rep. Anna Eskamani of Orlando and Sen. José Javier Rodríguez of Miami, the proposal would undo many of the cuts that were made underGov. Rick Scott in 2011 sought by business lobbyists wanting to lower howmuch their clients pay in unemployment insurance taxes.
The goal, Eskamani said, is to create a system “that wants to help versus a system that looks for reasons to reject you.”
One of the most consequential changes would be eliminating the formula Florida adopted to calculate how long residents can stay on unemployment.
Floridians currently can get state unemployment for only12weeks, the lowestduration in the country, when the state’s unemployment rate is below 5%. That can beextendedto asmany as23 weeks if the unemployment rate rises above 10.5%, but that extension can’t occur until January the following year.
Eskamani and Rodríguez’s bill would allow applicants to collect 26 weeks no matter what the unemployment rate is.
The bill would also double themaximumamountin weekly benefits that workers can collect from $275 to $500 and the minimum amount from $32 to $100. During the pandemic, Congress supplemented those meager state benefits, and even some Republican lawmakers, although it’s unclear if they would support the Democrats’ bill, have said the amount of money the state pays out is not enough.
Itwould also expandwho is eligible for benefits, including more part-time workers who have previously made too little to qualify, as well as those who are
self-employedandgigworkers.
fiscal analysis of the bill has not been conducted yet, but Eskamani and Rodríguez pointed to the millions in corporate tax breaks Florida gives out as one potential source of financing. Eskamani did not rule out raising unemployment insurance taxes for businesses, which pay for the system. Since March, Florida has paid benefits tomore than 2 million people, totaling $17 billion.
“We’re not naive to the deep budget challenges our state faces. However, if Florida can find $543 million to give back to the state’s largest
corporations in a tax refund, we can definitely find away to increaseunemployment benefits to match the national average,” Eskamani said, referring to the refunds Gov. RonDeSantis approved this year. “A working unemployment insurance system is critical to our economy and the success of businesses.”
The bill could be a tough sell in a Republican-controlled Legislature, which along party lines rejected returning for a special session to address problems with the unemployment system. Although there’s been bipartisan agreement that the CONNECT system, the
website where residents apply for benefits fromthe Department of Economic Opportunity, needs to be overhauled, Rodríguez said “we need consensus ... on the legislative reforms we’re rolling out here.”
The billwould also:
■ Create a Reemployment Assistance Ombudsman Office that would annually review the unemployment assistance process.
■ Require the DEO to provide at least two other ways for residents to apply for assistance in addition to the online application at floridajobs.org.
■ Allow applicants to automatically collect benefits from the time they lost their job instead of from when they applied for benefits, erasing the need to backdate applications.
■ Make it so applicants can’t be denied for leaving a job because of an illness or disability; to care for sick family members; having to relocate because their spouse got a new job; or if their employer moves somewhere that would require them to commute an hour or more. Victims of domestic violence could also not be denied.
Mandate the DEO to adopt a “set of workplace safety rules” with help from the Department of Health and make it so individuals can’t be denied for turning downunsafework.
■ Impose a three-week deadline for the DEO to determine if an applicant is eligible.
“There’s got to be a deadline. You can’t just send in your application, whether it’s electronically or by paper, and just have it sit, particularly in a situation like this where folks are experiencing tremendous hardship,” said bill sponsor Rep. Ben Diamond, who represents Pinellas County. “The idea that we’re just going to let people float in limbo indefinitely is just not fair, it’s just not right.”