With the critical need for education funding, we must expand our state's economy to meet our constitutional obligations, and I very much see this bill as part of the McCleary solution. - Senator Michael Baumgartner, R-Spokane
"At the same time, to the extent legislative budget writers feel constrained to raise taxes on business to fund education or other priorities of government, there will be a search for a countervailing area where tax or regulatory costs on employers can be reduced. And in that regard, Washington's workers' compensation system is always top of mind."
Workers' comp can be a staid topic, but not necessarily on Tuesday as several testy exchanges broke out between Senators and participants.
Last Thursday, November 10th, nearly 200 WSIA members, friends, and colleagues from all corners of the workers' compensation world in Washington came together at Safeco Field for a special fundraiser benefiting Kids' Chance of Washington.
Back -- way back -- in the day, in the late 90s and early years of this millennium, Washington used to rank alongside Oregon in the high thirties out of fifty states for highest premiums, prompting the improbable rallying cry at the Department of Labor & Industries of that era, that the secret sauce of Washington's monopoly made us a "high benefits, low cost" state for workers' comp.
In an effort to shed greater light on the workings of the Washington Supreme Court in areas of concern to WSIA, such as cases affecting workplace safety and workers' compensation law, the association has published a brief report recapping the top cases in these areas over the last six years, and showing how the current sitting justices of the court voted in them.
What does it mean in Washington for the testimony of injured workers' attending physicians to be given "special consideration" in appeals, and is that a mandatory rule upon which juries in Superior Court appeals must be instructed?
Spring has sprung, cherry blossoms on the capitol campus have popped, allergies are in the air, and the Washington State Legislature, despite going into an overtime period to complete its work, has finally adjourned for the year this week. Here is our wrap-up of what went down, particularly in the areas of workers' compensation and workplace safety issues.
