Jobless Get Little Sympathy From Gov. Scott's Team
TALLAHASSEE (CBS4) - If Governor-elect Rick Scott has his way, South Floridians who are out of work for three months may find their unemployment benefits cut off if they don't do community service.
Scott's transition team accused those who receive unemployment benefits of only spending an average of 20 minutes a day looking for work. The team said Scott should therefore wean the jobless workers off their checks.
Advisers also told Scott that after 3 months of unemployment compensation, unemployed Floridians should be required to perform community service work, similar to the way someone convicted of a crime has to perform community service work, according to the News Service of Florida.
In Miami-Dade County, the unemployment rate stood at around 13 percent for November but has declined in four of the past five months. Nationwide, slightly fewer people applied for unemployment benefits last week, the second drop in three weeks. Some analysts say that's a sign that the job market is slowly recovering.
But Scott's team is taking its deregulatory feeling and may seek to allow business to dramatically slash their unemployment compensation taxes.
Due to the state's high unemployment rate, just under 12 percent for the last few months, businesses are facing a major increase in the tax they pay into unemployment compensation program.
Minimum rates are set to go up from $25.20 per employee this year to $72.10 in 2011.
And while the jobless in Florida drew little sympathy from the Scott transition team, the wealthiest Floridians and visitors were cited as needing help. Scott's team said Florida was no longer, "the yachting capital of the world."
According to the transition team, changing this could add thousands of jobs serving the yachting industry.
The tough measures concerning jobs and unemployment benefits don't only affect Florida's jobless, but also employers.
If individual taxpayers were expecting large tax breaks, they may also be out of luck. According to the News Service of Florida, Scott's team wants corporate taxes and fees paid to the state slashed, unemployment compensation taxes slashed, and impact fees paid by developers should be done away with for at least two years.
Florida Power & Light could be a big winner under Scott as well. The Scott team wants to lift regulatory limits on FP&L to generate more power from renewable energy. While an additional 40,000 jobs could possibly be created, homeowners would likely pay higher fees to accomplish Scott's goal, according to the News Service of Florida.
