May
28, 2007
Source: WorkInjury.com, Sacramento Bee
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Governor Hints of Intention to Veto 'Job-Killer' Bills (And Won't Be Changing WC Reforms Either)
As we recently reported, the California Chamber of Commerce posted a long list of pending legislation that it termed "job killers" (to read our previous article on that, CLICK HERE).
Included in the list were several workers' compensation measures intended to ease the severity of some of the harsher aspects of SB 899 (such as the 2-year TD cap and the low PD rates).
The Sacramento Bee now reports that at a recent gathering of 1500 business executives, the Governor hinted he intends to veto those bills on the list, calling the list "absolutely spectacular."
While he hasn't yet taken formal positions on many of the specific bills on the list, his spokesman said the governor sides with the Chamber of Commerce "90 percent of the time."
The following excerpt from his speech at the gathering pretty much says it all:
"We set out, our goal was to reduce our Workers' Compensation costs by 25 percent. People couldn't take it any longer because of the increases in rates. I remember when I was on the campaign trail in 2003, and every businessman came up to me, from small businesses, medium and large, they said, "Please do something about Workers' Compensation when you get into office." And we did. Together we worked hard, and we came to a deal with Democrats and Republicans alike, to reduce the Workers' Comp costs by 25 percent. Now it is three years later, we have dropped the costs by 50 percent, and we were told by the Insurance Commissioner-(Applause)
"And we were told by the Insurance Commissioner that this year there will be another 16 percent reduction. Now, that is what I call a huge success. (Applause)
That means that we are putting 13 to 14 billion dollars back into the private sector, back into the businesses. And what do businesses do with that? They're going to expand their businesses. They buy more equipment, they hire more people. And that is what stimulated the economy in the last three years, that's how we created the 866,000 new jobs. And now we want to do exactly the same thing again for health care.
But you know what is so interesting about it? Even though Workers' Compensation has been so successful, there is always someone out there that tries to roll it back. Oh, you should see the kind of bills that come to my desk. They want to roll it back again to where it was. In the meantime, it is so successful. So again I have to say, no matter what attempt they make, it will be terminated, trust me. " (Applause)
- Help for the Injured Worker