Meek to Crist: Don't turn down $444M stimulus

Late last week, Congressman Kendrick Meek today wrote Gov. Charlie Crist urging him to call the Florida Legislature into Special Session if $444 million in federal stimulus dollars meant to fund Unemployment Insurance (UI) are not utilized to help unemployed Floridians and their families.

The Republican-controlled Legislature in Florida to date has refused attempts by Democrats to pass legislation enacting the necessary reforms to access the federal stimulus dollars available to Florida.

In Meek's letter to Crist, he wrote: "If the Florida legislature is unwilling to reconsider and act in accordance with ARRA provisions before the end of the extended legislative session ending May 8, 2009, I urge you to call for a special legislative session … Florida taxpayers and businesses are suffering now. The Florida legislature must act now. For members of the legislature to put ideology over the people of Florida in their time of need is objectionable."

Meek first raised this issue on April 23 in a Ways and Means Committee hearing on this subject.

In order to be compliant, the State must implement two of a possible four reforms: (1) Extended UI while in Training; (2) Part-Time Worker Coverage; (3) Weekly $15 Dependent Allowance; (4) Compelling Family Reasons for Leaving Work (includes ALL 3 of the following provisions: Domestic Violence, Spouse Relocation; and Illness & Disability) and affirmatively take these steps:

(1) To receive 1/3 of the funding, the State must enact an alternative base period, which ensures that the last completed quarter of a worker's employment is counted when determining eligibility for unemployment benefits. The Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation estimates that this will cost $51.3 million per year

(2) To receive the remainder of the funding, a State must enact 2 of 4 other provisions.

The Florida bills SB 516/HB 1333 reflect that Florida has chosen:

(1) The provision to permit former part-time workers to seek part-time work. This is estimated to cost nothing.

(2) The provision to permit voluntary separations from employment for compelling family reasons. The estimate for this is $22.4 million per year.

SB 516/HB 133 cost estimates are $74 million per year approximates the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation.

The $444.3 million grant would cover more than 6 years of these costs.

The National Employment Law Project (NELP) calculates that the added UI Modernization funding could have the effect of slashing the potential tax increase on impacted employers by $105.6 million. This is a 20% reduction from the expected $528 million increase in taxes. According to the National Employment Law Project, the projected infusion of federal money into the state's unemployment insurance trust fund would lower expected increases to UI taxes by $105.6 million.

Unlike in Florida, Georgia was able to pass legislation to enact the necessary reforms, with Gov. Sonny Perdue and the Republican-controlled Legislature working across party lines to receive its share of UI stimulus dollars by legislatively working together to be compliant with the guidelines set forth in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

On April 29, the St. Petersburg Times editorialized on this subject, writing: "With Florida's unemployment rate at a 30-year high, it's impossible to fathom why state lawmakers may forgo collecting $444 million in federal unemployment compensation for those out of work. But that is what the Legislature's cold-hearted Republican leadership is poised to do as the annual session winds to a dismal close. Florida, once again, won't get its fair share of federal largesse just when its economy and its residents need it most."