A scheduled vote on a bill that would change the rates of unemployment compensation taxes and the way jobless claims are paid out was postponed in a state Senate committee meeting Monday.

Businesses fretting over a major hike in the state unemployment compensation tax can relax. At least, for now.

On their first day of session, lawmakers delayed until 2012 a looming increase that could have resulted in as much as a twelvefold increase in the unemployment tax for businesses. Gov. Charlie Crist immediately signed the bill into law.

If taxes had not been delayed, the minimum unemployment tax businesses would pay per person would have risen from $8.40 to $100.30.  Businesses paying the maximum rate per person would have seen a rise from $378 to $459.