Proposals Could Change Unemployment & Low-Wage Workers

Florida's legislative session has just wrapped up its sixth week, but lawmakers in the state House and Senate still have a long way to go when it comes to hammering out a budget for the coming fiscal year. Discussions regarding legislation that could also impact what low wage workers in Florida are paid, as well as those in need of unemployment benefits. For a look at what is happening in Tallahassee, we are now joined by WGCU reporter and host John Davis. Welcome. Yeah, welcome. Can you please tell us what is going on in Tallahassee with regard to jobless benefits? So there is a bill that did pass the House this week, and there was a Senate companion that has gone through the committee process. It's also now just awaiting a floor vote on that chamber. Essentially what this would do is kind of make it a little bit harder for people who are claiming unemployment benefits to continue to get that benefit. So the changes it would make is, you would have to contact at least five prospective employers each week if you fail to appear for three or more job interviews without contacting that prospective employer to reschedule. That's something that could get you kicked off. And also, some people are just laid off. And if their old boss calls them back and says, hey, you know, your job is here for you again, and they don't take that, they're not going to be able to get these benefits any longer. Supporters are primarily Republicans in this bill. They say this is just about preventing fraud. And this social safety net program and being good stewards of taxpayer money. Democrats say these protections against fraud already exist. This is just making it harder for people who are unemployed to get any kind of benefit from the state. And, you know, and I ask them, Ami this week noted that the money that unemployment benefits come from, this is a fund that employers and people who, when they are working, pay into. So she's saying, you know, hey, this is your money, this benefit. It should be here when you need it. How would you in general characterize unemployment benefits in the state of Florida compared to other states? I would say stingy. Florida's benefits for unemployed people maxed out at $275 a week, and only for a period of 12 weeks. That's extremely low. Only Mississippi has a lower weekly payout rate. But they do it for 26 weeks. Very interesting. It is. And it's, I think it really kind of harkens back to the days when, U.S. Senator Rick Scott was the governor of Florida. He kind of did a lot to kind of rein in the unemployment program and kind of limit who had previously been even eligible for the benefit. I also saw there is legislation advancing that allows some workers in Flor, Florida, to be paid less than what the mandated minimum wage is. Can you tell me about that? Yeah. So there's Republicans in both chambers of the legislature pushing for this bill. This is not a broad thing. This would apply to a very specific class of workers. So I think internships, any kind of structured work based learning situation, training programs, pre apprenticeships. And in order to earn less than minimum wage, the person would have to voluntarily opt into that. They would have to sign a waiver. And they would still have to be paid at least the federal minimum wage or $7.25 an hour. And then also be time limits on this. So somebody something like 252 days that you could get paid. This lower wage for an adult. So about nine months and then a much shorter time period when we're talking about people under 18. Okay. And we discussed there's a lot of different proposals that are moving to the House. And the Senate. But, our, our lawmakers are mandated constitutionally to really do one thing, and that is to pass a balanced budget. The only thing that required that's the one thing. What is the status of this? The House and the Senate are still pretty far apart. The House and Senate budget proposals are about $1.5 billion different. The House proposal is about $1.5 billion less than the Senate. And they also make different priorities, like the House plans to back this proposal that governor DeSantis had included in his pre-recession budget priorities that would transfer the University of South Florida Sarasota-manatee campus to neighboring New College of Florida in Sarasota. The Senate's plan doesn't mention this at all. There hasn't even been a bill filed in the Senate to do that. Conversely, the Senate wants to keep funding Florida's State Guard. The House has no plan to do that. And the House and Senate also have very differing ideas when it comes to the Emergency Preparedness and Response Fund. This is a fund that can be tapped into when the governor declares a state of emergency. And there's been issues with that as well, because there are some lawmakers who want to put restrictions on that, saying, you know, this should really be used for preparedness and response for emergencies like hurricanes. And to be fair, the bulk of that money does go towards that. But now there are also lawmakers saying money from that fund has improperly gone towards building immigrant facilities like alligator. Alcatraz and deportation depot up in the Jacksonville area. And so they want to stop the governor from being able to spend that money on such things. We only have three weeks left in this legislative session. Any final thoughts? Yeah. March 13th is not that far away. But even if we do in this session on time and we don't know that we will remember in 2025, the session was extended an extra 45 days just to hammer out that budget proposal. But even if we end things on March 13th, governor DeSantis has already called a special session for April a five day session to deal solely with congressional map redistricting. So I wouldn't expect that the news out of Tallahassee is going to slow down any time. Well, we look forward to hearing more from you on the very latest. Thanks for having me. Thank you so much. John Davis, WGCU host and amazing political reporter.