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On February 15, the Missouri Senate voted in favor of workers' compensation legislation that ignores the current financial crisis in the state's Second Injury Fund.
Although provisions of the original version of the bill which were intended to address the Fund survived other changes to the bill made in a Senate committee, a substitute bill offered and adopted from the floor of the Senate stripped the much-needed reforms from the bill finally passed by the Senate and sent on to the Missouri House of Representatives. Adoption of the deleted provisions in the House is considered unlikely.
It was undoubtedly no coincidence that, as reported in STLToday.com, at an event sponsored by the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry on the same day, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster warned that millions of dollars in bills are piling up because of the legislature’s failure to act. According to Koster and others, The Fund is sitting on bills of more than $14 million owed to 184 injured workers, that are accruing $1.3 million a year in interest. And that tab doesn't count the potential liabilities for 29,000 pending cases — which could easily cost more than $145 million. A recent analysis by the Chamber estimated that the system has a total liability of $1 billion for lifetime benefits owed to those who have already won awards.
"If the Capitol does not address this, this is not coming in for a soft landing," Koster warned. "It will crash," he said. "And nobody knows what happens when it crashes."
Koster said the courts will decide who bears that expense — state taxpayers or the state's employers, who pay for the fund through a surcharge on their workers compensation insurance. Because of the shortfall, Koster quit settling claims, laid off one-third of the attorneys and staff members who defend The Fund, and stopped paying all new disability awards granted by courts.
Senate Majority Leader Tom Dempsey, R-St. Charles, who offered the amendment that removed the Fund reforms admits, "Employers are paying into that fund — just not enough . . . and we don't have a billion dollars in general revenue to take over the employers' responsibility."
Dan Mehan, head of the Chamber, does not consider the surcharge increase a tax increase, noting, "There's a liability out there for employers right now. Every month you let that go by, it increases.” |
