Florida Unemployment tax bill becomes law

[sc4ram]

This report says that Gov Crist has signed the bill (I have to say that is the fastest moving piece of legislation that I have seen in sometime)

http://www.myfoxorlando.com/dpp/news/politics/030210Florida-Legislature

[nancym]

Well, I did a quick scan of the new Florida law just now, and I probably should have posted it in this thread, but for what it's worth, and until we learn more, I posted over in the Ongoing EUC discussion thread a summary of what I think the bill means to some unemployed Floridians. But the bill, even though only 21 pages long, is a little quirky in its wording to me. And it's not just that, but the overlapping federal and state timelines make the whole situation all that harder to interpret. However, it could mean a lot to a number of people here.

And thank you to JJ for pointing out the news of this bill; I hadn't followed the progress on that recently, and frankly was a little surprised.

[daytonaman]

Senate failed to pass the long term extension benefits, the short term of 30 days passed minutes ago

[Jeff]

This is a very good thing for a lot of people.... and I'm glad. But doesn't it only open up one Tier for only those whose benefits run out in March? It does nothing for the long term unemployed or for those whose present Tier runs out on or after April 1st, correct?

[Michael55]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/03/us/politics/03cong.html?hp

[daytonaman]

Did these Bills pass in the eyes of the Florida AWI?

I called this morning regarding a question about Direct deposit, I also asked if benefits were extended due to Florida passing the 8 week, and The US Senate passing the 30 day, Brandon said the Agency had not heard of any extensions. I am at the end of Tier IV, My last check was issued on Monday, how long will it take for these new bills to get to the AWI?

[Unemployed In Orlando]

Did these Bills pass in the eyes of the Florida AWI?

I called this morning regarding a question about Direct deposit, I also asked if benefits were extended due to Florida passing the 8 week, and The US Senate passing the 30 day, Brandon said the Agency had not heard of any extensions. I am at the end of Tier IV, My last check was issued on Monday, how long will it take for these new bills to get to the AWI?

If history repeats itself, it could be a few weeks. We knew of EB last summer the last week of May, however AWI reps who answered the phone continued to deny the existence of EB all the way up through July, after the checks were already being issued. If I were you I would contact Josh or Melody now that Cassandra has changed departments. They would be more of a help with the future tiers etc.

[cantfindajob]

I'm wondering what the bill designation/number is for this long term extension (tier 5?) that Sen Durbin spoke of last night that they hope to pass today...thx

[cantfindajob]

SAmdt3336 to H.R.4213

[daytonaman]

SAmdt3336 to H.R.4213

TITLE II—UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE,
HEALTH, AND OTHER PROVISIONS
Subtitle A—Unemployment Insurance
SEC. 201. EXTENSION OF UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE
PROVISIONS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—(1) Section 4007 of the
Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2008 (Public
Law 110–252; 26 U.S.C. 3304 note) is amended—
(A) by striking ‘‘February 28, 2010’’ each
place it appears and inserting ‘‘December 31,
2010’’;
(B) in the heading for subsection (b)(2), by
striking ‘‘FEBRUARY 28, 2010’’ and inserting
‘‘DECEMBER 31, 2010’’; and
(C) in subsection (b)(3), by striking ‘‘July
31, 2010’’ and inserting ‘‘May 31, 2011’’.
(2) Section 2002(e) of the Assistance for Unemployed
Workers and Struggling Families
Act, as contained in Public Law 111–5 (26
U.S.C. 3304 note; 123 Stat. 438), is amended—
(A) in paragraph (1)(B), by striking ‘‘February
28, 2010’’ and inserting ‘‘December 31,
2010’’;
(B) in the heading for paragraph (2), by
striking ‘‘FEBRUARY 28, 2010’’ and inserting
‘‘DECEMBER 31, 2010’’; and
(C) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘August
31, 2010’’ and inserting ‘‘June 30, 2011’’.
(3) Section 2005 of the Assistance for Unemployed
Workers and Struggling Families
Act, as contained in Public Law 111–5 (26
U.S.C. 3304 note; 123 Stat. 444), is amended—
(A) by striking ‘‘February 28, 2010’’ each
place it appears and inserting ‘‘January 1,
2011’’; and
(B) in subsection (c), by striking ‘‘July 31,
2010’’ and inserting ‘‘June 1, 2011’’.
(4) Section 5 of the Unemployment Compensation
Extension Act of 2008 (Public Law
110–449; 26 U.S.C. 3304 note) is amended by
striking ‘‘July 31, 2010’’ and inserting ‘‘May
31, 2011’’.
(b) FUNDING.—Section 4004(e)(1) of the Supplemental
Appropriations Act, 2008 (Public
Law 110–252; 26 U.S.C. 3304 note) is amended—
(1) in subparagraph (B), by striking ‘‘and’’
at the end;
(2) in subparagraph (C), by striking ‘‘1009’’
and inserting ‘‘1009(a)(1)’’; and
(3) by inserting after subparagraph (C) the
following new subparagraph:
‘‘(D) the amendments made by section
201(a)(1) of the American Workers, State, and
Business Relief Act of 2010; and’’.
(c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments
made by this section shall take effect as if
included in the enactment of the Department
of Defense Appropriations Act, 2010 (Public
Law 111–118).

[Jeff]

I don't see any mention of another Tier of benefits in that. Here's a ten page brief which also says nothing about another Tier, only the extensions thru 2011, I suppose so that the newly unemployed can have access to all the Tiers currently available. What about the million plus who've used all the Tiers and have only the extremely meager job market to consider?

http://rpc.senate.gov/public/_files/marchextenderslegnotice.pdf
(the unemployment section is on pages 4 and 5)

[nancym]

SAmdt3336 to H.R.4213

This bill is absolutely gigantic, though a lot of it is simply extending already existing programs or provisions. And then there are amendments to amendmetns to amendments. But I searched through Thomas

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:SP3336:

and I see absolutely nothing that would indicate any kind of Tier V or weeks added to other tiers. If anyone can find it, please post!

[cantfindajob]

Ya I can't find it either BUT the $100 bill price tag has to do more than change dates...I hope that includes more benefits for those of us who are going under...I'm so sick of reading articles about the recession and feeling like I'm the subject of the article...."people are becoming homeless and needing govt help for the first time in 50 years"...yep thats me alright... while guys like bunning create non-profits and are the only employee and get more than 1/2 of the money raised...and have the nerve to filibuster benefits for unemployed American citizens....

[daytonaman]

The Long term bill is on the floor, Max Baucus heading up the discussion

Through what I have been reading, I am seeing EXTENDED BENEFITS, and eligibility. Was there any specific mention of tiers in the bills last November?

This is a pdf of the Extended benefits approved by the Florida Legislature Senate Bill 810, April 2009, The Florida House & Senate passed an 8 week extension Yesterday 3/2/10, is this the same type of extension?

http://www.floridajobs.org/unemployment/EB/FLORIDA_EXTENDED_BENEFITS_FACT_SHEET.pdf

[cantfindajob]

Sen Durbins office just verified to me that indeed there are NO additional tiers/benefits in this bill just date extensions to Dec 31,2010....BUT rest assured that additional weeks/tiers are in the plan which is why it was so important to pass the 30 day extension last night....SO stay tuned for a NEW BILL in the next 30 days that will keep food on the table if you exhaust all tiers/EB

[sc4ram]

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/careers/sfl-ask-career,0,6220477.story

[nancym]

Sen Durbins office just verified to me that indeed there are NO additional tiers/benefits in this bill just date extensions to Dec 31,2010....BUT rest assured that additional weeks/tiers are in the plan which is why it was so important to pass the 30 day extension last night....SO stay tuned for a NEW BILL in the next 30 days that will keep food on the table if you exhaust all tiers/EB

Well, that's intriguing. Thanks for posting.

[nancym]

The Long term bill is on the floor, Max Baucus heading up the discussion

Through what I have been reading, I am seeing EXTENDED BENEFITS, and eligibility. Was there any specific mention of tiers in the bills last November?

This is a pdf of the Extended benefits approved by the Florida Legislature Senate Bill 810, April 2009, The Florida House & Senate passed an 8 week extension Yesterday 3/2/10, is this the same type of extension?

http://www.floridajobs.org/unemployment/EB/FLORIDA_EXTENDED_BENEFITS_FACT_SHEET.pdf

daytonaman--

I'm not quite sure I understand your question, but yes, there were specific tier changes in the bill that passed Nov 8. The one that passed Dec 19 was just for deadline extensions.

And yes, the new Florida bill is the same program as the one that was passed back in April, but it is not for 20 weeks, only covers 8, and is really an extension of eligibility to cover the time period between when the April law expired on Jan 2 and the time the federal law expired on Feb 28 that gave the state 100% federal funding to cover their costs. But now since the feds extended their own deadline (or are about to, I've lost track of which bill that EB funding extension is in!), I would be surprised if the state didn't go back and extend their own deadline--it's free money for them, and they're borrowin bigtime, with interest, right now from the feds.

It's confusing when Congress uses the term "extended benefits" in the generic sense when they're talking about the EUC program (the tiers), because the program is separate and distinct from the "EB" program that most of the very long term people here are familiar with. That was the program (20 weeks) that had the tighter restrictions on job hunt records that had to be submitted for each week.

So it's important to untangle those terms. Sometimes you can only tell by reading the actual legal wording of the bill, not the summary, by which original law is being amended by the current one.

When Congress talks about extending the deadlines, they are usually talking about extending the EUC deadlines, BUT they have in the background usually that they plan to extend the deadline that was in the original ARRA for EB funding. Extending the EUC deadlines means automatically money is available to the states for the existing tiers. Extending the EB deadlines means that the feds offer that 100% funding, but each state has to have in place the appropriate state laws that provide for EB triggering on and off and their own cutoff dates. So Florida would have to enact yet another bill to cover anything beyond this new EB offering.

That latest link that sc4ram posted from Marcia Pounds would make it seem dubious that many of the people who "lost" those 1-8 weeks while EUC tier 3 started would be eligible, but if I were in that category, I would check to make sure I couldn't get it. Bottom line it seems is whether you went any week between Feb 22, 2009 and Feb 27, 2010 without being covered by either regular benefits or EB or the tiers.--Any blank weeks? Should be covered by those new EB weeks, IF you didn't already get the max EB already.

[Hoppy]

Hello,

A few weeks ago I wrote to NELP and asked if those of us who had our EB's cut short (due to Tier III) might be able to claim/receive them after the Tier IV benefits run out. On Monday, March 1, I received this answer from them:

If the Senate extends the Recovery Act deadline, you will be able to collect your remaining balance of EB.

I only received 5 weeks of EB out of the 20 I was approved for when Tier III kicked in and I was switched over. I'm confused now with the 8 weeks Florida has just passed. Actually, I'm thoroughly confused about ALL of these new bills, new extensions, etc. But I figure this news is much better then no news!

[shartee]

I, like so many other people, never thought I'd find myself in the position of being unemployed for over a year. With that being said, I have tried numerous times to get information from the FL Uemp. office but have not been able to get a true explanation or one that I'm able to understand. I am constantly told, "when your benefits run out, then call back and we can see what is available". I was laid off on Jan 16, 2009; I have received my original 26 weeks and have received (I believe) three extensions. Is that all I'm entitled too? Are there any extensions in the works, can anyone tell me how many weeks are truly available? I had heard 79 weeks at one time. I'm so confused, so frustrated and so not knowing what to do........I just want to work! Thanks for your help!!!

***ADMIN EDIT : Moved to appropriate thread

[connorsgp]

Hi Sharlee..do you remember what your first 26 weeks credits were? I was laid off in Feb 2009 and I just transitioned to tier 2..my initial credits were 275 week or 7150 for 26 weeks the maximum benefit; however, everyone has there own benefit determination. There are 4 federal tiers which are on this site somewhere. tier 1 is 20 weeks..tier 2 is 14 weeks...tier 3 is 13 weeks and tier 4 is 6 weeks for a total of 53 additional federal euc weeks. These numbers are based on the maximum benefit 275 wk for the initial 26 weeks. If you are getting the max benefit your TOTAL number of weeks is 79. Are you confused yet?

[sc4ram]

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/careers/sfl-ask-career,0,6220477.story

[sc4ram]

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/fl-unemployment-benefits-0304-20100303,0,6636357.story

[Hoppy]

Thanks, sc4ram for those links. They did add some clarity!

[sc4ram]

u-bet Happy, here is some more

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/careers/sfl-ask-career,0,6220477.story

[Sponsored content]