Davis’ Business Friendly Parting Gesture
By Robert Warne - January 30, 2004When Governor Gray Davis signed AB 227 Sept. 30, 2003 there was an odd absence of debate over a budgetary matter included in the bill that required employers to start funding 100 percent of the Department of Workers’ Compensation’s (DWC) budget.
For a time it seemed that the state’s employers had just rolled over in hopes that they’d still be ahead if the projected savings from the bills panned out.
Well there might have been an unusual delay in the debate, but the fight is on again, now that state attorneys have realized that when Gov. Davis signed the 2003-2004 budget Oct. 10, he unsuspectingly reinstating the prevailing funding method that put the General Fund on the hook for 80 percent of the DWC’s costs.
The Workers’ Comp Executive first broke the story Wednesday when it reported that the error left the DWC short of $54 million and hanging by a thread with just enough cash to get by another five weeks.
Republicans and Democrats agree that the problem needs to be fixed but as usual members of each party have differing views on how to remedy the situation.
The Los Angeles Times reported that business groups and Republican lawmakers want to tie the funding solution to the complete reform package that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has called for by March 1.
But the Democrats would rather deal with the funding as a stand-alone issue with an urgent cleanup bill.
Either way, the solution would need the governor’s autograph before going into effect. | 
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