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Condotta calls on governor
to remove ‘lump of coal’ from
small businesses’ stocking
Rep. Cary Condotta,
R-Wenatchee, and 26 House and Senate colleagues, are urging Gov.
Christine Gregoire to keep her promise to rescind the 2006 workers’
compensation premium increases. The call was contained in a letter
delivered today.
“At the Washington Policy
Center’s Small Business Conference on November 17, the governor
announced she would give small businesses a much-needed break and repeal
workers’ compensation premium increases for 2006,” Condotta said. “We’ve
since learned that her statement to rescind the proposed increase and
the ‘payment due’ statement that business owners will receive from the
Department of Labor and Industries next month won’t match up.”
Gregoire and state
Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) Director Gary Weeks announced
last month that “there will be no general increase in workers'
compensation premiums for 2006.” However, in a bureaucratic
sleight-of-hand, employers will be paying more in 2006 than 2005 while
workers will be paying less.
“It’s quite tricky actually,” Condotta said, explaining that in the
original proposal submitted in August, L&I proposed to raise rates on
the employer-paid accident fund premiums by 12.1 percent and to not
raise rates on the medical aid fund premiums (paid 50% by employers and
50% by workers). The new proposal only reduced the medical aid fund, but
leaves the original increase on the employer-paid fund intact. In the
end, employers will pay more - In some cases, substantially more.
“After a year that filled businesses’ stockings with lumps of coal in
the form of new taxes, tax hikes and more regulations that the governor
just a year ago said she would never consider, the least she could do is
fulfill her promise to small businesses on workers’ compensation. I’m
sure that businesses would be happy to trade one lump of coal for a real
Christmas present,” Condotta said.
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For more information, contact:
Bobbi Cussins, Public Information Officer: (360) 786-7252
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