The first installment of what I expect to be a long running series, although I wish it wouldn't be.
Washington State's Workers Comp program is spinning out of control and coffers are running dry. So what are some of our less fiscally responsible friends down in Olympia proposing? Let's just throw more money at it!
The State Department of Labor and Industries is recommending a rate increase of $117 million. That may not seem like much to folks down south but to you and me that's real money and it won't affect just those mean old corporations either since workers pick up 25% of the tab. And with purse strings tight in most of our personal budgets this is hardly the time to go around raising taxes.
To many of our lawmakers it seems that Washington business is a never ending wellspring. But with Boeing's South Carolina operations decertifying their union we can't keep raising the stakes and expecting them and other companies to stick around. And last time I checked 100% of zero is still zero.
Fortunately there are some bright lights in Olympia. Senators Janea Holmquist (R-Moses Lake) and Jim Honeyford (R-Sunnyside) are pushing for lasting reforms like streamlining administrative costs at L&I, which are up 28% in the last year alone, and looking in to why the average time off of work for injured employees is 266 days, three times the national average. This is all with claims down 50% since 1990 too so if anything workers and business should be getting money back.
Posted by MarkGriswold at September 22, 2009 09:24 AM | Email ThisI'm a dumb small business owner. Please tell me how I can "self insure" for UI tax?
I'm sure big businesses do for general L&I, not so simple for small business.
Also- The day I was thrown overboard from corporate America after 10 years at the same company and was treated like pauper-hat-in-hand no- worse, a welfare recipient down at the UI office was the day I vowed to NEVER be personally subject to that tax EVER again.
I live for the day I can live off of capital gains and not pay into social security and medicare either. Nothing like dislike big nanny state government to fuel one's desire for liberty and wealth.
Take your government program and shove it.
Posted by: Andy on September 22, 2009 12:30 PMhttp://www.digitalarchives.wa.gov/GovernorLocke/speeches/speech-view.asp?SpeechSeq=251
Maybe they should have just put that money away instead of buying votes.
Posted by: Vince on September 22, 2009 12:30 PMHey---I have an idea. Let's put these people in charge of our medical care! We could call it single payer and I know they'd run things just as effciently!
Posted by: Michele on September 22, 2009 12:44 PMWC - run by L&I. Businesses that qualify can self-insure.
UI - run by ESD. No self-insurance generally not allowed. Only things like hospitals and school districts tend to be allowed to "self-insure" UI - though what they really do is reimburse ESD. I'm a bit hazy these days on the specifics.
Posted by: Cloister on September 23, 2009 05:26 AMThe reason the costs are so high now, is because we have both Injured Workers and Employers who like to screw the system. You have legitimate claims that employers fight tooth and nail and hike up the costs with appeals, red tape, and loopholes. Same goes for scamming "Injured Workers". The reason costs keep increasing isn't because of L&I. Its because of the amount of horrid red tape the legal battles have wrapped the department in. If people really cared about one another and quit fighting every little thing, the costs would more than likely resemble the way they were in the 1970's.
L&I has to spend millions of dollars every year in false investigations that corrupt employers request and extreme appeals that corrupt attourneys file. Quit blaming the people who have to juggle WAC's and RCW's and blame the people who create them.
Posted by: State Employee on September 23, 2009 03:05 PM