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SB 334: … and then there were none
This bill shrinks the number of members on the Workers Compensation Board that oversees the W.C. program. Perhaps it may save some money by doing so, perhaps not. But it sets us on a slippery slope, going from the present five-person board to a three-person board. Who knows what’s next? Two people could easily deadlock in voting, so if we want to streamline the board further, lets just make it a one-person post. Of course, if that person were less than an angel, possessed of human bias, his word would be gospel. What view might his bias tend to? Well, the future is hard to predict, as Mark Twain said, but a guess might be had from the party that requested the bill. It is Liberty Northwest Companies, parent, I believe, of Liberty Mutual Insurance. And if Liberty’s client companies have to pay less in workers compensation expenditures, then we at the insurance carrier can have a bigger margin of profit without anyone knowing or suffering the loss for it. Except, perhaps, the injured worker. But what does he matter?
Edward Johnston 541-336-7045
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