983% Unemployment Compensation Tax Hike - What is Charlie thinking?

[RiversideLoki]

"TALLAHASSEE -  Florida's record unemployment rate will result in the largest-ever hike in unemployment compensation taxes next year, prompting a burst of partisan rancor over whether the state could have avoided the hike by accepting more federal stimulus dollars.

Florida Department of Revenue officials announced Wednesday that the deficit in Florida's unemployment compensation fund â€" triggered by an 11-percent jobless rate, the worst in over three decades â€" would prompt much higher taxes on companies to replenish the fund next year.

The size of the hike faced by the 474,000 businesses that pay into the fund is determined by a formula that factors in the percentage of workers each has laid off.

For companies hit by the largest hikes â€" roughly 237,000, or half of the total -- their rate would skyrocket from $8.40 per-employee this year to $100.30 in 2010, a 12-fold increase.

Employers paying the maximum rate would see their tax climb from $378 per-employee to $459.

Source http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-unemployment-tax-increase-20091118,0,7221763.story

My take: I've tried searching high and low for as many points of information on this but it's just bad, bad, bad. It's basically insult to injury for a lot of small businesses that have been struggling already (my employer included.) Especially when and if (as Sink puts it) "state lawmakers 'willfully left millions of our taxpayer dollars sitting on the table in Washington.'"

[mtraininjax]

Crist is a wet noodle with a similar spine. I hope Rubio runs over him with a MACK truck!

[St. Auggie]

I love our government's thought process...
Unemployment is high bc the employers cant afford employees,  because of that we tax them more so they can't hire, increasing unemployment.
Bravo America.