5/06/2004
CHAMBER ECHOES CALL TO PROTEST PROPOSED WORKERS COMP HIKES
Cortland, NY – The Cortland County Chamber of Commerce and other business groups
around the state are partnering with the New York State Business Council in
opposition to a proposal that would raise state workers compensation rates by
nearly 30 percent this fall.
“We’ve asked our members to express their concern through an e-advocacy campaign
that the Business Council has set up,” says chamber executive director Garry
VanGorder. “This is important, because an increase of this magnitude could
flat-out put people out of business.”
New York State businesses already pay workers compensation rates significantly
higher than the national average, and the prospects of such an increase is “both
stunning and frightening,” said Business Council President Daniel B. Walsh.
"It's stunning because New York State employers already pay workers'
compensation costs that are 72 percent above average on a per-case basis," Walsh
said, "and it's frightening because employers need rate relief, not double-digit
rate increases."
The proposal by New York’s Compensation Insurance Rating Board (CIRB) comes
during a legislative session in which Senate and Assembly representatives have
not enacted workers’ comp reform or acted to ease any of the other high costs of
doing business—state and local taxes, energy costs, and health-insurance costs,
for example—that limit New York's job growth.
CIRB is an insurance-industry entity that each year recommends a change in
workers' comp premiums and assessments. Premiums are the basic rates employers
must pay to provide insurance coverage for their workers. Assessments are taxes
on premiums that support the operations of the Workers’ Compensation Board and
special funds that are part of the workers' comp system.
Each year, the state Insurance Department considers the CIRB proposal and issues
a final decision on changes in premiums in assessments. Many years, the
department reduces the CIRB proposal. Last year, the Insurance Department raised
comp rates by 1.7 percent, and assessment rates from 13 to 14.3 percent.
Access the Business Council’s e-advocacy function at
http://www.lobbynet.com/supporter/chamber.asp?chamber=bizcouncil.
“This is an easy and effective way for businesspeople to express their concerns
to our representatives in Albany,” VanGorder said. “It’s vital that people get
involved.”