Rick Scott's Let's Get Laid Off Plan

Gov. Rick Scott has been touting that his policies have created job growth. The reality is Scott's policies haven't been in effect long enough to make that assessment. What we do know his the latest Agency for Workforce Innovation unemployment numbers for June are 10.6 percent. Scott might want to rethink his message about the job market recovering. Florida has one fourth worst unemployment rate in the country.

One area where Scott's policies are taking effect is his layoffs of state workers. Scott is adding people to the unemployment rolls with the layoffs. Central Florida economist Sean Snaith said the private sector will not make up for the job losses.

"The private sector is being forced to swim against the rip current of government layoffs," Snaith said. "That's making the process of job creation in this economy even more difficult than it already was."

Scott laid off 1,295 Florida state employees in a job market that is not hiring. It will be harder for people to find work after Scott and the Florida legislature cut unemployment benefits. Scott and the Florida Chamber of Commerce believe that companies shouldn't pay corporate taxes. Both the Chamber and Scott actively sought to limit the weeks the unemployed can collect benefits. The Chamber lobbied Scott to not have companies pay for unemployment insurance. Employees would pay greater deductions out of the paychecks. Scott's policies are financially regressive to working Floridians.

Dressing Unemployed As Super Heroes

Only in Florida: Gary J. Earl, the Central Florida director of the Agency for Workforce Innovation is being investigated for spending $16,500 on super hero capes and form cutouts of Dr. Evil Unemployment. Earl planned to spend a total of $73,000 and hand out 6,000 red capes to the unemployed. Earl claims this was part of an outreach program to the unemployed.

He said with any marketing push, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" and that "not everyone will agree on creative strategy."

"The plight of the unemployed is why we exist," Earl wrote, "and to help them, we have to engage them, introduce them to our services and connect them with job opportunities."

Earl said his agency would cooperate with investigators but he did not address other questions about the probe. Several Workforce Central board members, including Chairman Owen Wentworth, did not reply to emails or phone calls to the Sentinel.

I'm all for making people more aware of unemployment services. Dressing the unemployed as super heroes is an amazingly stupid way to inform the public. Republicans will use this disaster to justify cutting unemployment benefits. The unemployed shouldn't be punished for Earl's horrible judgement.

How Republicans Are Waging Class Warfare In Florida

This shows you the alternate reality Florida Republicans live in. Tom Clendenning of the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation testified before the Senate Commerce & Tourism Committee. Clendenning told the committee Florida could save $800,000 per year by adding five employees to the Agency for Workforce Innovation to investigate people who are not looking for work.

Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, said he wants to know how many Floridians are turning down jobs in favor of keeping their unemployment checks. Gaetz asked AWI to "distinguish between those who can't get off the couch ... and those who won't get off the couch," Gaetz said.

Chairwoman Nancy Detert, R-Venice, said unemployment becomes a "lifestyle" after six months. "We'd like your department to get rid of the slackers and malingerers," she told Clendenning.

It is obvious Clendenning just made up the $800,000 figure. Otherwise Gaetz and Detert would know how many so-called slackers there are. Clendenning is using Republican contempt for the unemployed to add five staffers to his department. If Clendenning was really serious he would tell the senators his office would have to hire workers to go out in the field and check up on people collecting unemployment. We are talking about a significant number of people the Agency for Workforce Innovation would need to hire. Put it this way. Do you believe Florida could conduct a Census check on people on probation with only five employees?

What makes matters worse is that Agency for Workforce Innovation is denying Floridians a legally required a six cent increase in minimum wage. Workers have filed a class action lawsuit against the Agency for Workforce Innovation.

On Monday, a lawsuit was filed on behalf of thousands of minimum wage earners in Florida against the state’s Agency for Workforce Innovation (AWI). The suit claims the agency has refused to raise the state’s minimum wage to keep pace with the rising cost of living, as required by state law since a constitutional amendment was passed in 2004.

The National Employment Law Project and Florida Legal Service say the agency is denying workers a six-cent raise to $7.31 an hour.

Although the Florida Supreme Court said that the law did not provide for decreases in the minimum wage in times of deflation, the plaintiffs say that have seen internal documents that show that AWI reduced the minimum wage in 2010 to $7.06 per hour from 2009’s $7.21 because of deflation that happened in 2008-2009. They say that the rate should have stayed at $7.21 But because Congress raised the federal minimum wage to $7.25, minimum wage earners didn’t suffer that “erroneous” wage cut.

Republicans are cutting services. One of the few things Republicans are willing to hire new government employees for is to search for people who enjoy collecting unemployment. Most people can't pay their bills with what they collect from their unemployment checks. Republicans have no idea how bad the job market is on how miserable it is to be unemployed. Yet they will not lift a finger to help the poorest employed workers. Republicans are actually trying to decrease the pay of the working poor. These people are really fucking sick.