Jobs

Endeavour takes off on July 15, 2009. The shuttle program will end this year. Finding replacement jobs is a priority for Space Florida. [Photo: Sandra Joseph - NASA]

Space

Worried that the end of the NASA’s space shuttle program could blast another hole in Florida’s already battered economy, a broad coalition of business groups, lawmakers and other leaders is spearheading an effort to help transition the state’s aerospace industry into a new era of commercial space operations.

Up to 7,000 Kennedy Space Center workers — with an average salary of $77,235 — could receive pink slips when NASA’s shuttle fleet goes out of commission this year. Brevard County leaders warn that another 21,000 indirect jobs could also be lost in the transition, potentially pushing the county’s unemployment
rate up to 13%.

Frank DiBello, president of Space Florida, has laid out a plan called Vision 2020 to triple the size of Florida’s space industry by 2020, and he’s pushing for the passage of space-related bills to help Florida retain a robust space industry as other states compete aggressively for space jobs.

Rep. Ralph Poppell (R-Vero Beach) has reintroduced legislation that would create
tax credits to attract commercial space and high-technology
firms. Other lawmakers are preparing measures that would provide research and development tax credits and aerospace employment tax credits.

Unemployment Compensation

David Daniel, of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, warns against a large readjustment to the unemployment tax rate that employers must pay.

With the state’s unemployment insurance trust fund depleted, Florida employers are facing a record tax increase this year. In August, as the state’s unemployment rate climbed toward a 35-year high of 11%, the trust fund went broke, and the state began borrowing about $300 million a month from the federal government to pay its unemployment compensation benefits.

The depletion of the trust fund triggered an automatic readjustment of unemployment tax rates that will bump the minimum annual rate from $8.40 per employee to $100.30. The maximum annual rate, meanwhile, will rise from $378 per employee to $459.

The large increase could “break the backs of many employers” who are hanging on by a thread, warns David Daniel, vice president of governmental affairs for the Florida Chamber of Commerce. “Frankly, we have to look at a way to soften the blow.”
Options could include lowering the automatic trigger in the law, which occurs if the balance in the fund falls below 4% of the total taxable payroll in the most recent state fiscal year, or allowing employers to pay their taxes quarterly and forgiving the interest they are normally charged for late payments.

In the meantime, the situation has reignited a partisan debate over the Republican-led Legislature’s refusal of $444 million in federal unemployment aid offered last year. Democrats have called Republicans to task for not accepting the stimulus money to help out-of-work Floridians and “modernize” Florida’s unemployment system. Republicans, however, say there were too many strings attached — that the state would have been required to expand the pool of unemployed workers eligible for benefits, thereby putting the state on the hook for even more money down the road.

Concrete Push

As the recession takes a toll on residential and commercial construction, the Florida concrete industry is pushing for a bigger share of the state’s paving projects. “During this particular recessionary period where local jobs are scare, we would like to see the Florida Department of Transportation and cities, municipalities and counties all take a very close look at utilizing concrete for paving roads, intersections, highway, parking lots — any paving that’s out there,” says Tim Kuebler, chairman-elect of the Florida Concrete & Products Association.

Kuebler says the slowdown in construction has produced a 51% drop in concrete consumption since 2005. The industry, which expanded to meet demand during the housing booom, has lost 35,000 jobs; another 91,000 jobs have been lost in related industries such as mining.

Kuebler says the FDOT’s specificiations favor asphalt for road-paving projects because of its lower initial cost, ignoring the frequent need to resurface in a few years. Kuebler says concrete is more economical because it usually can last at least 30 years without resurfacing.

While Kuebler and his colleagues have been sharing their message with lawmakers, he says he hopes that legislation won’t be needed to create a two-pavement system in the state and that the DOT will revise its specifications so that the concrete industry has a fair opportunity to compete.

The concrete industry wants a bigger share of road building in Florida. [Photo: iStock]

Tags: Politics & Law, Government/Politics & Law