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Meek tries to pin down Crist on unemployment compensation aid
Posted Nov 18, 2009 by William March
Updated Nov 19, 2009 at 10:16 AM
Following word that Florida employers could face a major tax increase for unemployment compensation next year, Kendrick Meek is trying to pin down Gov. Charlie Crist on accepting federal unemployment aid under the stimulus package.
The fund that pays unemployment compensation claims in Florida is running dry because of the state’s 11 percent unemployment, and the state is borrowing from the federal government to pay benefits, the Associated Press reported. To replenish the fund, Florida businesses could face a 12-fold increase in unemployment taxes next year.
Democrats say that wouldn’t be necessary if Republicans in the state Legislature would accept federal stimulus aid for jobless benefits. But that accusation, denied by Republicans, set off a complicated back-and-forth between the parties Wednesday and today, based on intricate wrinkles in the federal legislation and state law.
“What is your position on this critical legislation?” Meek asked Crist in a public letter. “Are you for the stimulus or are you against it? Is the position of your administration to tax small businesses or not?”
It’s a sensitive subject for Crist, of course, because he has been taking heat from conservatives including his opponent in the Republican Senate primary, Marco Rubio, for supporting the federal stimulus pacckage.
Democrats contend that the Republican-dominated state Legislature refused to accept $444 million in federal unemployment aid last year, making the tax increase necessary.
Republicans responded that the money wouldn’t have been available in time to prevent the tax increase, and the conditions attached would have resulted in a permanent expansion of the state’s unemployment costs.
Democrats, in turn, shot back that the state could have applied for an early infusion of money in time to prevent an automatic tax increase from kicking in, and could have changed the law to go back to the old benefits system after the federal money ran out.
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