Governor 48.9% continues the fine JEB! legacy: tax cuts for the poor and cuts in basic human services for people in need. Unemployment compensation makes one of the main strands of the tattered social safety net. If one loses a job through no fault of their own. say through layoffs or Bain Capital buying a company and sending jobs to China, then in FL with enough work history over the previous year, a beneficiary can get up to $275 biweekly.
If you've worked and paid unemployment taxes for decades, you still only get benefits based on previous 4 quarters. FL payment amounts rank among the lowest in the nation. By making it nearly impossible or at least as frustrating as conceivable, FL also reduces the money it has to pay out, monies which people legitimately earned by working, which help people survive, and which help keep the economy moving by getting put back into buying goods and services rather than getting stashed in Cayman Islands tax shelter.
Starting with dauphin JEB! Bush, the state of FL made it mandatory to apply on line for unemployment benefits, which kind of can discourage potential applicants without computers from applying.
Same thig happened with food stamps, another form of assistance which helps keep people in need alive. Jeb! closed local service centers and moved to web based applications. Then, one had to have a phone interview to confirm eligibility. If you ain't got enough dough to eat, do you think you can keep phone service?
Can't have any of those pesky poor people actually benefiting from government services.
And forget about talking to a human being customer service representative. Tax cuts and budget cuts which follow means you can call for days--DAYS--and never get through.
JEB! came into office pledging to cut taxes, received warnings that coming yeas wuld bing exponential growth of Medicaid expenses, and then cut $14 billion in taxes, leaving FL broke and needing to impoverish most broken citizens even more, "Because you can't raise taxes in the middle of a recession."
Bullshit.
Return taxes to near pre-Bush rates, at both federal and state levels.
JEB! left the cupboard empty, ate the seed corn, and salted the fields so poor could not even glean for subsistence.
Bastard!
[BY TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA
HERALD/TIMES TALLAHASSEE BUREAU
TALLAHASSEE -- When 65-year-old Raymond Togyer isn’t polishing his resume or cold calling potential employers, he’s spending hours trying, unsuccessfully, to navigate Florida’s labyrinthine unemployment compensation system.
Togyer — who was laid off for the first time in his adult life from a high-paying civil engineering job in June — has spent the last seven weeks sending and resending letters, staying on hold for hours and checking state websites, all to no avail.
He is one of hundreds of thousands of out-of-work Floridians flummoxed by what has become the most tightfisted unemployment compensation system in the nation.
“They told me that I was eligible and that I was going to be getting $275 a week,” said the Togyer, of FortLauderdale . “That was seven weeks ago. To this day I have not received anything. I’m draining my savings to pay my bills.”
Critics say Gov. Rick Scott and Florida’s Legislature are behind a multipronged effort to restrict payments to eligible Floridians. A required 45-question “skills review” and an online-only application system have combined to restrict thousands of applicants from receiving aid. The U.S. Labor Department is investigating the complaints. A spokesman told the Herald/Times that Florida is cooperating with their inquiry, but they would not comment further.
Scott’s office did not respond to a request for comment, but in the past he has touted the required 45-question “skills review” as a commonsense reform intended to create a more skilled workforce.
Whatever the intention, the impact is clear: Hundreds of thousands of unemployed Floridians have been cut off from a safety net system for those who find themselves suddenly without income.] emphasis added for shame
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/21/2962090/getting-an-unemployment-check.html#storylink=misearch
[More than six years later, as Bush prepares for his final year in office, it would be hard to deny that he's cut taxes. Since 1999, lawmakers have approved tax cuts totaling more than $14 billion.
But most Floridians haven't seen a direct impact.
A review of tax cuts enacted during Bush's terms show the bulk of the cuts have aided businesses or investors, with cuts on estate taxes and investments accounting for nearly half of the tax cuts and cuts for businesses also well into the billions of dollars.
"The vast majority of tax cuts (under Bush) went to special interests, select corporations and our most privileged and wealthy citizens," said Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach. "They gave the wealthy and most powerful the vast majority of your tax breaks and gave everyone else a few crumbs and told them they've been to the party."] Bolded for those with eyes who will not see.
http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051204/LOCAL/212040319/1078&template=printart
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