Free Republic

<p>The California State Compensation Insurance Fund has fired its longtime accountants following a a dispute over a financial audit.</p> <p>State Fund, the largest workers' compensation insurer in California, will not renew its contract with PricewaterhouseCoopers, severing a 20-year business relationship with the accounting giant.</p>

<p>Like many California employers, restaurateur John Pickerel wonders if lawmakers this week have written the right recipe to stop his skyrocketing workers' compensation insurance costs. "I'm hopeful, but not optimistic," said Pickerel, owner of the Winters-based Buckhorn restaurants. "The workers' comp (bill) has to go down."</p>

Republican gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger said, if elected governor, he would not sign a budget that did not include plans to reform California's workers' compensation system, according to an article in the San Diego Union Tribune. Schwarzenegger vowed to stand up to anti-business legislators and 'Sacramento's job-killing philosophy of overtax, overspend and overburden.' Speaking before the board of directors of the California Chamber of Commerce in Dana Point Sept. 5, Schwarzenegger also said he would fight for litigation reform and regulatory reform to prevent jobs from being driven out of the state. Schwarzenegger said that, if elected, he would immediately...

Calif. Tackles Workers Comp System By Michael Kahn SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Even Costco can't afford California anymore. Costco Wholesale Corp. (Nasdaq:COST - news), the largest wholesale club operator in the United States, traces its bargain-hunting corporate beginnings in part to a high-volume, steep-discount warehouse opened in San Diego more than 25 years ago. But now, Costco says it could cut jobs in the state where it got its start because of California's skyrocketing worker's compensation costs. The total bill for workers compensation in California has soared to an estimated $29 billion in 2003 from $9 billion in 1995, prompting...

<p>It didn't take long for the gubernatorial hopefuls to make their pilgrimage to Indian Country, hats in hand and money bags open.</p> <p>Wealthy gambling tribes have eclipsed prison guards, insurance companies and utilities as the biggest campaign contributors to political campaigns in the state. As such, they command attention, respect and fear from those seeking office.</p>

<p>"Pennsylvania is 51st in taxes on corporate income," said Darrell McKigney when I spoke with him last week. "And Pennsylvania is 44th in health care costs, 39th in electric utility rates, 42nd in workers' compensation rates and 47th in gas taxes." McKigney is the president of the Small Business Survival Committee in Washington, D.C., one of the nation's leading small-business advocacy organizations. With the rankings mentioned above, he was referring to how Pennsylvania stacks up against other states and the District of Columbia in the latest Small Business Survival Index.</p>

Workers’ Comp: A Brewing Crisis For States? By Pamela M. Prah, Staff Writer Stateline.org August 8, 2003 Double-digit hikes in what employers pay for workers’ compensation have state lawmakers scrambling to figure out ways to cut costs. Govs. Jeb Bush (R) of Florida, Gary Locke (D) of Washington and Bob Wise (D) of West Virginia all called special sessions this year to look at the system that pays for medical care and provides cash benefits for workers injured on the job. Florida and West Virginia approved significant changes, while Washington’s changes were limited to hearing loss claims. “Usually states don’t...

<p>Dooley Benassi, chief executive of a 25-year-old San Jose paper-packaging business, can't explain why his worker's compensation insurance premiums rose 72 percent this year, to nearly $25,000, and will likely rise 23 percent more next year.</p> <p>His 20 workers have filed only a handful of claims in the past 10 years, none more than $1,000. Benassi feels helpless and is hoping something comes along to ease his burden. Soon.</p>

Mitchell Greif, 44, is a Southern California native who loves the Los Angeles beaches and the lifestyle the city has to offer.But fed up with skyrocketing costs at his plastic-bag making company, Coast Converters, he's packing up to go.This past December, Greif received notice of the huge premiums he'd have to pay for his employees' 2003 workers' compensation insurance.He doesn't own a big business with deep pockets. He employs just 150 workers, and in recent years rising workers' comp premiums have driven his profits down. In 2001, he paid $225,000. That rose to $330,000 in 2002. This year, he's paying...

"The chief business of the American people is business." -- President Calvin Coolidge California is going downhill, and fast. Houses and apartments remain unaffordable, utility costs are among the highest in the nation, traffic is unbearable, taxes are going up dramatically, good-paying jobs are hard to find and businesses are fleeing the state. If only California leaders would take Coolidge's advice, we might not be in the fiscal crisis we are in. But, no, in California, legislators think business serves only two purposes: as a ready supply of campaign cash and as an endless font for tax revenue. California likes...

<p>Trying to rein in skyrocketing workers' compensation costs, the state Senate approved legislation Wednesday to control prices charged by outpatient surgery centers and pharmacies to treat injured workers.</p> <p>The 90-year-old system, which treats job-related injuries, has been rocked by cost increases that have more than doubled average workers' comp insurance rates required for most businesses.</p>

The owners of The Station nightclub in West Warwick did not carry workers' compensation insurance as required by state law, News Channel 10 reported Wednesday. Nearly 100 people were killed when fire destroyed the club the night of Feb. 20. News Channel 10 reported club co-owners Jeffrey and Michael Derderian could face civil penalties as high as $1 million for failing to have the insurance. Workers' compensation is required of any business in Rhode Island that has one or more employees, regardless of whether they are full or part time. When a worker is hurt on the job, workers' compensation...

"If you are not part of the solution, then you are a part of the problem" The dictionary defines the word ACCOMPLICE in the following ways: accomplice n : someone who helps another person commit a crime [syn: accessory, accessary] accomplice \Ac*com"plice\, n. [Ac- (perh. for the article a or for L. ad) + E. complice. See Complice.] 1. A cooperator. (Law) An associate in the commission of a crime; a participator in an offense, whether a principal or an accessory. When "one" (Governor Gary Locke) is aware of the "actions" (committing of crimes) by another, and that same...

<p>WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The late Sen. Paul Wellstone's reelection campaign disclosed Friday that it had failed to buy worker's compensation insurance, but the state came to the rescue for the survivors of four aides killed in last October's plane crash.</p>

<p>SACRAMENTO (AP) - After vetoing workers' compensation reforms for three years, Gov. Gray Davis this year declared the legislation long overdue and signed the labor-friendly bill into law.</p> <p>Why the change?</p> <p>Finally, Davis said, he received a reasonable compromise after the first, second and third measures would have cost businesses and insurers too much.</p>

<p>The big-basketed bicycles of Triangle Messenger Service will stop rolling at the end of the month.</p> <p>Triangle has told all its employees that it will close its doors as of March 29. Founder and President Bill Jones said he had reached an agreement yesterday to sell the business to 1st Courier/Dynamex, a Dallas-based national delivery company that has been operating out of a Manchester office in Pittsburgh for several years.</p>