Posted on 04/29/2006 10:57:45 PM PDT by FairOpinion
AS A SMALL business consultant for the past 10 years, I saw the effect that high workers' compensation insurance had on small businesses, and I can tell you that the changes instituted by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger two years ago most definitely have benefitted California.
First, we have 575,000 new jobs in California while Schwarzenegger has been in office. Before he became governor, businesses were fleeing California for states with lower costs of doing business. Now, job-creation is vibrant in our state.
Second, we have workers' comp cost-savings that are topping 40 percent. And another 16-percent cut in premiums is on its way. Every dollar that small business owners save in workers' comp is another dollar they can use to pay higher wages, market their business, buy new computers, pay for healthcare, pay for gasoline, etc. In effect, they can use their savings to grow their businesses.
Moreover, the law isn't helping just businesses, but also schools and nonprofits who were decimated by up to 46 percent increases in workers comp costs with no way to generate the revenue to pay those increases, leading to layoffs and fewer services.
(Excerpt) Read more at contracostatimes.com ...
All of which will be reversed if Angelides or Westly win. Angelides openly advocated large tax increases on businesses and "the wealthy". Westly is more stealthy about it, but is advocating the same thing.
The workers comp reforms are under attack in the courts and in the legislature. Let's hope they survive those attacks, and continue, or we'll have businesses fleeing to Nevada and New Mexico again. And who could blame them?
Exactly.
Businesses have been fleeing CA in droves because of its anti-business climate.
Enacting workmans' comp and not raising taxes contributed significantly to businesses stayin in CA and the rebound of the CA economy.
But unfortunately this can be easily reversed.
"The difference between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Pete Wilson is he's an immigrant," said Babiak, a Republican and vice president of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Contra Costa County."He'll be more sympathetic to immigrants, legal and illegal."
fyi
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FRom October 6, 2005
Workers’ Comp Reform in California: Gone Too Far?
Filed Under: Economy, California, Law, Sacramento, Health Care, Author: John Wilson
http://www.californiaconservative.org/?p=1094
The workers’ compensation in California is a mess, and that is hardly news. However, this time it is not because of runaway medical costs and insurance premiums. This time it is because injured workers are being grossly mistreated by the system as a result of the recent reforms.
I do not believe for a moment that was the aim of the reforms. The system was spinning wildly out of control two years ago. It was fairly described as a crisis. The cost of the system was a major contributor to businesses fleeing the state (in addition to a lot of other looney stuff that passes for policy in California). Something had to be done.
Something was done.
The games played by some medical providers, conspicuously the chiropractors, operators of diagnostic facilities (MRIs etc), run away pricing at surgical centers, never ending treatment, limitless physical therapy and the like were properly addressed. Bringing reason and uniformity to permanent disability evaluations via the AMA Guidelines was made law. Treatment guidelines were adopted. The costs of the workers’ compensation have dropped dramatically.
But in doing these things a large measure of over-reaching was indulged in. The injured worker is paying the price. And whether one is conservative or liberal, that simply is not right. What is going on now shocks the conscience.
Let me begin by saying that I am no whining liberal. My bona fides as a conservative are beyond question. I spent twentyfive years in the defense of insurance companies with a heavy emphasis in workers’ compensation. I have worked litigation in nearly twenty states. I know how this business works and how it can and should work.
I am a lifelong Republican and activist. I am a contributor to two major conservative blogs including this one. I suport this president and the governor of California in most things. I am appalled by the political excesses of the present day Left and am no fan of Barbara Boxer, Nancy Pelosi and their ilk.
Having said that, in the last year I have begun representing applicants (injured workers) in my semi-retirement. I arrived in this area of practice just in time for the California reforms to take effect. (Timing never has been my long suit.) What I have seen depresses me.
What happened to get us here?
What is going on?
What can people of goodwill do to right the wrongs?
I will address these questions in subsequent posts.
I would like to get this discussion going on the conservative side of the aisle. I fear that those on the Left will misinterpret what I am trying to say and do. They have developed a nasty habit of opposing anything that comes from the Right even when it is clearly something for the common good. I fear folks on the Right will see that expression of this concern is somehow going “squishy.”
At the same time I believe people of goodwill can come together and do what is needed. The reforms have brought the pendulum as far to one side as it was to the other a few short years ago. It is time to find the middle.
"Having said that, in the last year I have begun representing applicants (injured workers) in my semi-retirement. I arrived in this area of practice just in time for the California reforms to take effect. (Timing never has been my long suit.) What I have seen depresses "
You are quoting from a personal injury lawyer!
and therefore, he has no right to speak as a result, unless he donates to the GOP and even then, he'll get slapped down by the likes of you and those who seek to tell people to just accept what they are told and fed awithout question.
How conservative of you.. Uh,, btw, more than a few now driving the GOP rush for the cliff's edge are high powered legal types and lawyers, should that get them a free pass based on that?
You really revel dealing in the politics of personal destruction and character assassination thru innuendo and out and out lying?
How telling.
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