Taking Comp Away From the Legislature
By Robert Warne - January 6, 2004 The strength of a voter’s signature was proven recently as a powerful petition campaign successfully set stage for the historical recall of Governor Gray Davis.
Tapping into the petition excitement and hoping for similar success with workers’ compensation reform is the Small Business Action Committee (SBAC).
The group filed an initiative titled the Workers Compensation Reform Act last week in an effort to trim $10 billion dollars in costs from the system.
Members of the committee know that there’s going to be a battle for further reforms, so a ballot measure for next November is their insurance that something will be done to fix the system.
SBAC Founder and President Joel Fox said, “We hope that the legislature and governor will solve this problem. However, small businesses can’t wait to see if there will be a legislative solution before we take action. If there is no major workers comp reform in this coming session of the legislature, we need to have an initiative qualified for the November ballot.”
Fox served as a senior policy consultant to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger during his campaign. Even though the governor has said he’d be willing to take the workers’ compensation issue to the voters and the ballot initiative mirrors his vision of reform, according to the Sacramento Bee, the governor is currently focused on selling his proposal to the Legislature.
According to the committee, the proposed initiative will provide a comprehensive set of solutions for California’s worker’s compensation system including: uniform standards for rating injuries; a reduction in excessive litigation; and more benefits for truly disabled workers.
Now that the first step has been taken with filing the initiative, it will be interesting as the year progresses to see what its proponents will do to convince the voters that this is a winning ticket.
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