Free Republic

SACRAMENTO (AP) - California's workers' compensation costs are going down, but you wouldn't know it by looking at Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget proposals. They include big increases in the state's own workers' comp costs. The Republican governor's budget predicts the state's cost of dealing with job-related injuries and illnesses among its employees will jump 30 percent over two fiscal years - despite much-touted changes Schwarznegger pushed through the Legislature last April. Jim Zelinski, a spokesman for the State Compensation Insurance Fund, a quasi-governmental agency that administers the state's workers' compensation program, said savings from the 2004 legislation and cost-cutting bills...

As an owner/operator of a state-licensed board and care home for the elderly, I can tell you that contrary to what state insurance commissioner John Garamendi is telling the press, we have been hard-hit, once again, with double-digit increases in the cost of workers' compensation ["Rates for workers' comp are dropping," News, Jan. 19]. I have been in business more than 10 years and have never once had a claim. My rates have gone from under 6 percent to more than 23 percent of payroll. And since 2003, when Garamendi claims business owners have seen average cuts totaling 13.9 percent...

For the short term, the question is whether Schwarzenegger can draw enough power from his status as a mega-celebrity to overcome lawmakers' resistance to his budget and recover from any dip in his popularity. For the long term, Schwarzenegger's political interests dictate a fast resolution to the budget crisis to ease his path to reelection in 2006, should he seek a second term. "It's kind of like Civil War surgery: If you're going to take someone's leg off, then do it quickly," said Rod Kiewiet, a Caltech political science professor. History suggests that approach can succeed. Gov. Ronald Reagan approved...

Schwarzenegger called for spending cuts, changes in education regulations, a cap on university fee increases, reform of state purchasing, consolidation of duplicative government departments and commissions, renegotiation of state energy contracts and a solution to the state's unemployment insurance woes. He said that he was steadfast in his opposition to taxes and that spending cuts were the key to fixing the state's budget crisis. "The fact of the matter is that we do not have a tax crisis; we do not have a budget crisis; we have a spending crisis," he said. "We cannot tax our way out of this...

Gov. Schwarzenegger Announces 'California Recovery Plan' 11/18/2003 Calls on Legislature to Repeal SB60, Pass Workers Compensation Reform, Structural Budget Reforms SACRAMENTO Gov. Schwarzenegger unveiled his "California Recovery Plan," and called on the Legislature to repeal SB60, pass meaningful workers compensation reform and structural budget reforms so the state no longer spends more money than the state receives. "I will not shrink from the challenge or shirk my responsibility to the people of California. So today I want to detail my California recovery plan." said Schwarzenegger. Gov. Schwarzenegger laid out three separate reform packages as part of the "California Recovery...

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT STATE OF CALIFORNIA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- P R O C L A M A T I O N by the Governor of the State of California WHEREAS, an extraordinary occasion has arisen and now exists requiring that the Legislature of the State of California be convened in extraordinary session; now therefore, I, ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, Governor of the State of California, by virtue of the power and authority vested in me by Section 3(b) Article IV of the Constitution of the State of California, do hereby convene the Legislature of the State of California to meet in extraordinary session at Sacramento,...