Workers' compensation reform

Senate passes Workers Comp bill

Rejects unfriendly amendments, then passes bill unanimously, 30-0

Acknowledging that Wyoming’s injured workers deserve better treatment, the Wyoming Senate Monday passed a bill improving death benefits to surviving family members and extending and increasing temporary total and permanent total disability benefits.

The Senate passed the bill unanimously, 30-0. The House similarly approved the bill on a unanimous 60-0 vote.

Injured workers, the AFL-CIO, the Wyoming Trial Lawyers Association, the ESPC worked for nearly 18 months to bring the need to improve the care extended to people hurt on the job to the public’s attention. (That's a photo of Les Vasey of the Laborers' local and AFL-CIO Executive Secretary Kim Floyd, above.)

The advocates’ mantra was short:

“No one should go broke because they went to work one day and got hurt.”

The Joint Labor, Health and Social Services Committee took the question up during last year’s interim between legislative sessions. The committee conducted several hearings, then hammered out legislation that will make things better for people aimed at changing the state’s treatment of injured worker

In Monday’s action, the senate rejected two deleterious amendments; one proposed by Sen. Charles Scott and a second proposed by Sen. Drew Perkins. Both senators represent districts that include parts of Casper.

Scott proposed an amendment that would have rejected part of the bill that requires the Workers’ Compensation division to pay its fair share of litigation costs when it claims up to 33% of the settlements won in successful third-party lawsuits filed by injured workers.

The Perkins amendment would have reduced the age limit under which children of workers killed at work are eligible for survivor benefits.

Neither amendment garnered much support. Each was defeated on a voice vote. (Once again, here is the need for taking roll call votes on amendments. In the official record, there’s no telling who supported and who opposed the suggested changes.)

In its consideration of the House bill, the Senate added several amendments:

1. Allows injured workers seeking vocation rehabilitation to attend a private technical school as well as a community college or UW.
2. Allows workers’ comp coverage of single proprietorships with just one employee.
3. Changes the appropriation to set aside $100,000 for a single new position in the Office of Adminstrative Hearings* rather than $200,000 for two positions. Appropriates $50,000 for a study of OAH procedures aimed at making it technologically current. The amendment also requires the Worker’s Comp division and DOT to split those costs 55% - 45%.

The bill has been referred to the House for concurrence. It still could get hung up there, however, the ESPC and its allies believe none of the differences truly endanger ultimate passage of the bill.

House Bill 54 Workers’ compensation amendments will:

• Increase dependent children’s, death and permanent impairment benefits;
• Provide a minimum and extend the duration of temporary total disability benefit;
• Provide an annual cost of living adjustment to permanent total disability benefits;
• Extend the maximum duration of vocational rehabilitation benefits;
• Extend the period over which death benefits are paid;
• Limit the time for the Workers’ Compensation Division to recover overpayments;
• Revise the criteria for, and distribution of, employer premium credits;
• Authorize companies with as few as two employees to obtain coverage under the system;
• Require the state to pay a fair share of the costs of litigation when covered workers recover damages from third parties;
• Require the division to reconsider claims if an injured worker’s failure to meet a procedural deadline is the fault of the worker’s attorney;
• Authorize and appropriate $100,000 for one additional position in the Office of Administrative Hearings and $50,000 for the cost of investigating the acquisition of a case management system capable of accepting and receiving electronic filings and which includes a time management system.
  

Monday March 2 was a good day for Wyoming's workers and their families. Please send thanks to your legislators, especially those on the House and Senate Labor committees, for their efforts on the behalf of injured workers. The bill did not deliver all the reforms needed in the system. The ESPC still believes the division needs more case workers and needs to treat workers and employers fairly and equitably.

Also, here's a thanks to all the journalists who wrote about this issue, but a special thank-you to Dustin Bleizeffer of the Casper Star-Tribune. Reporter Bleizeffer demonstrated great devotion to workers and the state that needs them by writing many stories about the system and its flaws.

Campaign contributions reined in …

The House Monday amended Senate File 12, the proposed bill to increase the limit on campaign contributions from individuals from $1,000 per election (the primary and general count as separate elections) to $2,400 per election, the same as the federal individual contribution limit.

The amendment applied the increased limit only to statewide races (governor, secretary of state, auditor, treasurer, and state superintendent of public instruction), not to legislative or local races.

The amendment, sponsored by Rep. Mary Throne (Democrat from Cheyenne) and co-sponsored by Rep. Amy Edmonds (Republican from Cheyenne), focused the argument that campaign contribution limits should bear some relationship to the cost of races.

Contributions at the $2400 level are not necessary for legislative and local races, they argued, and it’s better for candidates to have to appeal to a larger group of people for the funds they need to campaign.

The principal argument against the amendment (and for the bill) seems to be “inflation.” It seems odd that some legislators are very concerned about inflation cutting into campaign contribution levels, but not other amounts set in statute – like minimum wage for tipped employees, for example.

Senate File 12 is on third reading and final passage Tuesday morning. Please contact your legislators and ask them to keep the amendment and, if it is removed on third reading, to oppose the bill.

Helium property tax goes to Gov. Dave

Also on Monday, the HB 287 Helium - property tax won final approval when the Senate adopted a Joint Conference Committee report that the House approved last Friday. The measure imposes property taxes on helium, putting taxation of that very valuable gas in line with property taxes levied on the extraction of other minerals in Wyoming.

The finished bill awaits signing by Gov. Dave Freudenthal.



*Briefly, OAH is the board that reviews contested Workers’ Comp cases and contested actions by the Department of Transportation on driver’s licenses.

ESPC researcher Sarah Gorin and Marcia Shanor of the Wyoming Trial Lawyers Association contributed to this report.

Children's health insurance

KidCare breathes

House Labor keeps bill alive

The KidCare Chip expansion won strong approval from the House Labor committee Tuesday, although getting through required yeoman’s work by sponsor Sen. Mike Massie of Laramie, seen at right, and considerable testimony from Patti Guzman, who manages the program for the Department of Health.

Sen. Massie and Ms. Guzman went through many questions as they explained SF 39 Children’s health insurance program. Their testimony proved there is no substitute for proper planning. And Ms. Guzman deserves plenty of credit for keeping a very tight ship as she runs the program. She handled all the questions about the program expertly and competently.

Frankly, Patti Guzman puts the lie to the negative stereotyping of bureaucracies, bureaucrats, and the management of government programs.

Rick Schum of Blue Cross/Blue Shield answered questions concerning “crowd out” – the idea that KidCare Chip will encourage people to leave private insurance. That doesn’t happen, Schum told the committee. It was important testimony supporting the bill.

House Labor Health and Social Services Committee Chairman Jack Landon noted he had prepared several amendments to address what he had believed were shortcomings in the bill. But after Sen. Massie, Patti Guzman, and Rick Schum answered question after question, Chairman Landon dropped his amendments.

“I’m more comfortable with this all the time. I’m just about to wear it out,” Landon said as the hearing of the bill passed the two-hour mark. He called for a vote and the committee voted 8-1 in favor of the expansion of the KidCare program.

Only Casper Rep. Lisa Shepperson voted against the bill.

Rep. Debbie Hammons of Worland, (a co-sponsor of the bill) AARP, Blue Cross Blue Shield, the Wyoming Children's Action Alliance, the Wyoming Hospital Association, and the Equality State Policy Center testified in favor of the bill.

The bill next will be re-referred to the House Appropriations committee. It must be heard by the committee by end of day Thursday then return to the floor of the House to be considered in Committee of the Whole by the Friday deadline for hearing bills listed on general file.

Advocates who can talk with members of the House Appropriations Committee should urge them to support the measure.


Helium bill hits snag

On Tuesday, the bill to impose property taxes on helium produced in Wyoming passed the Senate, 21-9, with a relatively minor amendment. On Wednesday, the House failed to concur with the amendment, triggering a conference committee along with concerns that the bill will fall victim to House-Senate wrangling. Currently, helium is the only valuable mineral produced in Wyoming that is not subject to property tax.


And on other property tax topics …

On Tuesday, the Senate Revenue Committee heard House Bill 234, which proposed a property tax exemption for home, commercial and agricultural properties. For each property, the value would be determined by a three-year rolling average, and the amount of value in excess of the average would be exempt from property tax.

The bill had significant administrative problems, and the ESPC opposed it on those grounds as well as a broader opposition to hobbling the fair market value system. The Legislature has more direct options for reducing property taxes if that is the desired outcome.

The Senate Appropriations Committee ended one of those options on Tuesday by killing HB 68, the homestead exemption bill. However, a bill expanding eligibility for the property tax refund program already has passed both houses.

ESPC researcher Sarah Gorin contributed to this report.

Child health insurance program reinstated

Senate goes for broader KidCare

Chances for gaining needed expansion of Wyoming’s KidCare CHIP program improved Monday when the Senate approved a bill enabling children in families earning up to 300% of poverty-level income to enroll in the program.

Senate File 39, Child health insurance program, was amended last Friday to hold the expansion to children in families earning incomes up to 250% of poverty-level income. Sen. Eli Bebout, who offered the amendment, said the 300% level would encourage people to drop private insurance for their children in favor of the state program.

On Monday, prime sponsor Sen. Mike Massie, photo at left, brought an amendment to address those concerns. He noted that expanding to 300% will provide coverage to about 1,700 children who currently lack health insurance.

His amendment excludes families whose children are eligible for employer-provided insurance, even if the family hasn’t taken it.

Sen. Bebout liked the amendment, but still argued that employees would choose coverage only for themselves and not their children on the assumption they could get KidCare CHIP. He said $45,000/year is a good income for a family of three in Wyoming. People earning that amount can afford their own insurance if they keep their priorities straight, he suggested.

But Sen. Michael Von Flatern of Gillette noted that many families earning $45,000 per year do so through part-time jobs with employers who don’t offer health insurance benefits to part-time workers.

The debate sparked a tart comment from Sen. Curt Meier of Torrington. He said employers will not offer insurance for employees’ dependents if they know the employees can turn to the state. “Enough socialism is enough socialism,” he said.

But Sen. Massie said family insurance is just not affordable for many families at this income level. He presented statistics showing that the average health care policy in Wyoming covering families costs $12,800 per year. State employees pay over $15,000 per year for family coverage. Buying insurance on the open market would take 20% of the gross income (before taxes) of families at 300% of the poverty level, he pointed out - an option these families could not choose and still pay for other family needs.

The amendment passed 16-11 and the bill itself was approved by a wide margin (26-3 with one excused).

Property taxes on helium

Ad valorem (property) taxes will be assessed on all helium extracted in Wyoming under HB 287 Helium property tax, approved in House Committee of the Whole on Monday.

House Speaker Pro Tempore Frank Philp of Shoshoni said that some helium currently escapes property taxation because it is extracted through a contractual arrangement rather than a lease, and is the only valuable mineral extracted in Wyoming that is not taxed. He noted that last year the Legislature approved imposing severance taxes on helium.

The helium property tax bill resulted from a Wyoming Supreme Court decision saying that Wyoming’s property tax statutes define a taxpayer as a “lessee” or “lessee’s assignee,” but not a contractor. If the Legislature wants to tax helium extracted under a contractual arrangement, the Court said, then legislators need to put that in the law – hence HB 287. (Helium extracted from private and state lands and from federal lands under a lease arrangement already is taxed.)

Revenue Committee Chairman Rodney “Pete” Anderson of Pine Bluffs pointed out that property taxes were paid on helium until the Wyoming Supreme Court decision, when the state’s major extractor of helium suddenly declined to pay.

Chairman Anderson did not name the company, since naming companies, individuals and organizations during debate is against House rules. But the company is ExxonMobil, which has a long history of aggressively testing Wyoming’s mineral tax system.

Rep. Mike Madden of Buffalo argued there is no substantive difference between a contract and a lease, so legislators should not get hung up on the “oddity” of the arrangement and approve taxing helium like any other mineral.

Rep. Tom Lubnau of Gillette brought some humor into the debate when he advised his colleagues that if “it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then we should tax it like a duck.”

Opponents argued that the bill was “changing the rules in midstream” and would disrupt investments made by companies extracting or planning to extract helium. Speaker Pro Tem Philp noted the companies were paying the tax prior to the Wyoming Supreme Court decision, and surely are watching what is going on in the industry, they could hardly be surprised at the re-imposition of property taxes.

The measure passed Committee of the Whole overwhelmingly on voice vote and will move to second and third readings on Tuesday and Wednesday.

De-regulating child care

House Bill 313 Licensing of employer day care facilities passed on general file by a vote of 29 for 28 against Monday evening. The bill’s title is a bit misleading, since it allows employers to open a daycare center on site without meeting state licensing requirements.

Speaking in favor of the bill were Reps. Lorraine Quarberg, Thermopolis, Jack Landon, Sheridan, Bob Brechtel, Casper, Erin Mercer, Gillette, Mike Madden, Buffalo, Del McComie, Lander, David Miller, Riverton, and Tom Lockhart.

Reps. Cathy Connolly, Mike Gilmore, Casper, Elaine Harvey, Lovell, Tom Lubnau, Gillette, Saundra Meyer, Evanston, and Lori Millin, Cheyenne, opposed the bill.

The speakers fell into two distinct camps on this bill:
* Why wouldn't a company want to license their child care? Licensing provides for the basic health and safety needs of children.
* Licensing is not necessary because parents know what is best for their children.

The ESPC and the Wyoming Children’s Action Alliance oppose the bill. (Since the bill passed Committee of the Whole, there is no roll call vote.) It will be up for second reading Tuesday.

ESPC researcher Sarah Gorin contributed to this report. Thanks also to Deanna Frey of the Wyoming Children's Action Alliance