LAKELAND -- Responding to a reporter's question at a news event, Governor Ron DeSantis gave thumbs down to a state Senate proposal to increase weekly jobless benefits from $275 to $375 a week.

“Increase benefits? Look, no, I mean, I think we're getting people back to work,” DeSantis replied to a reporter during an appearance in Lakeland.

DeSantis referenced stories that businesses need more workers. He says the job market is vastly different from a year ago. Some employers have argued that the federal boost in unemployment benefits is discouraging people from looking for work.

The Senate proposal seeks to update benefits that were cut in 2011 under Governor Rick Scott to keep businesses from seeing tax increases. It's ready for a Senate floor vote but there is no companion in the house. It's sponsored by Senator Jason Brodeur of Sanford, a Republican who was in the legislature in 2011 and supported the earlier legislation.

“We’re a much more modern society than when this (unemployment) statute was first written,” Brodeur said.

The bill, which doesn’t have an identical House version, would increase the number of weeks benefits would be available and scale back a “work search” requirement that currently says people on unemployment must reach out to five prospective employers each week.

DeSantis also praised the way employment has bounced back since the arrival of the pandemic, with lower jobless rates and higher than expected tax revenues.

Florida’s latest unemployment figures represent 475,000 people out of work from a workforce of 10.17 million. The number of people out of work grew by 1,000 from February, while the workforce size increased by 46,000. The workforce size is still down 460,000 from where it stood in March 2020, according to the department’s figures.

DeSantis was in Lakeland to announce $150 million in state infrastructure grants. The biggest chunk. $42 million, is going to clean up Lake Bonnet in Lakeland and improve the surrounding park, and neighborhood drainage systems. He said one of the reasons Lakeland was targeted for the huge grant was its position as one of the highest suburban poverty regions in the nation.

Information from the News Service of Florida was used in this report.

Photo: Getty Images

Chuck Britton

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