Ryan Carter
Tips on how to combat skyrocketing state workers' compensation costs
that are forcing businesses out of state and prompting fraud concerns
will be the topic of a round-table discussion this week in Glendale.
Assemblyman Dario Frommer (D-Burbank) will join state Insurance
Commissioner John Garamendi and others to talk about the issue and
take public feedback from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. Friday at the Glendale
Central Library, 222 E. Harvard St.
Other panelists in the round table will include Christine Baker,
executive director of the Commission on Health, Safety and Workers
Compensation; Frank Neuhauser, project director for UC Berkeley's
data-survey research center; and Betty Jo Toccoli, president of the
California Small Business Assn.
The discussion will include policy initiatives and how to further
trim the state's $29-billion workers' compensation system, which Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger said is a major part of bringing California
back to fiscal health.
"The issue is huge for local businesses," said Frommer, chairman
of the Assembly Health Committee. "I've been hearing from local
constituents about it for some time. This round table is about the
opportunity for business to hear what is being proposed in terms of
remedies. But it is also about business people sharing their stories
and their thoughts for how they think we as policy makers should
proceed to fix the problem."
Last year, Frommer helped push through legislation that skimmed
billions out of the bloated workers' compensation system.
"Last year we cut about $5 billion in costs from the system," he
said. "But what has happened is that businesses have not seen their
premiums decrease."
Committees of the Burbank and Glendale chambers of commerce have
already started meeting jointly to discuss how to lobby local
legislators such as Frommer for more reform.
Garamendi, meanwhile, has called the system "distorted," and in
his workers' compen- sation savings plan has suggested that he could
"expose" insurance companies that do not pass along savings from
reforms to businesses.
