Florida’s Republican legislators

Written by Dr. Garth A. Rose

Just a couple of weeks ago there was great optimism out of Tallahassee that the state government would be approving close to a billion dollars to provide unemployed Floridians with extended benefits. The funds to be allocated are being sourced from the federal stimulus funds provided to the state.

However, last week word out of Tallahassee was that Republican legislators in the Florida Legislature could refuse the federal funds. This would create severe hardships for over 250,000 unemployed Floridians whose benefits are on the verge of expiring. Moreover, the situation becomes worse as more people depend on unemployment benefits in a state where the unemployment rate for February rose to 9.4 percent, the highest since 1976.

This bizarre intent by some Florida Republican legislators is in keeping with a trend among Republicans in state legislatures across the country. Determined to make the stimulus funds signed into law by President Obama a political issue, some Republican governors and state legislators have been refusing the stimulus funds. This is obviously an inexplicable attempt to counter attempts by President Obama to resuscitate the ailing national economy.

The reason the Florida Republicans give for resisting the funds is that expanding unemployment benefits would commit the state to an expense they cannot support. The argument is that the provision from the federal government would be for only a year, and that if the state passes a law to widen the pool of people to receive extended unemployment benefits, it would be hard pressed to continue this benefit when the federal funds expire.

According to Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation, the state could face additional expenditure as high as $200 billion after the federal funds expire.

Some legislators are also arguing that that if the state takes the funds, it could mean hardship for Florida companies that pay into the state’s unemployment insurance fund.

There could be validity in some of the arguments being made against accepting the stimulus funds to extend unemployment benefits, but what about the state’s growing unemployed residents? Are they simply to be left to face starvation and homelessness, because the state fears funding these benefits a year from now?

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