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Legislation to shorten the number of weeks Floridians can receive unemployment pay while lowering business taxes is likely to pass the House next week. The 2011 Legislative Session begins Tuesday, but a bill to reform the unemployment compensation process is already ready for a vote. The bill would make it easier for an employer to challenge an employee’s claim, shorten the number of weeks a jobseeker could receive state benefits from 26 to 20, and lower business taxes this year on average by 20 bucks an employee. Karen Woodall, Director of the Florida Center for Economic and Fiscal Policy, says the savings are minuscule compared to the effect on jobseekers.

“The attitude up here is just really distressing because we should all be working on creating those jobs, getting people back to work and supporting them while they are caught in the middle,” said Woodall.

Looming is two billion dollars the state has borrowed from the feds to pay the unemployed. The money is due back with interest, with the first payment in September.