A healthy debate about workers' comp

In California, taxes for workers' compensation have risen so high that companies are moving out of the state. The latest announcement is of Reliance Trailer Manufacturing, which cites costs of workers' comp in its decision to move 50 welding and painting jobs from Cotati, Calif., to Spokane.

A company is bringing jobs to Washington! Welcome them — and make sure that whatever attracted them here is something that we keep.

This state will have a false sense of security, however, if it is content to compare itself with California. In Washington, workers' comp premiums increased by an average 29 percent this year, and will go up 15 to 25 percent in 2004.

Many of the reasons are common to all states — the rise in the cost of medical care, the drop in yields on bonds and the lack of jobs to which injured workers can return. Part of it is because of a state court decision that widens the definition of benefits.

For whatever reason, an increase in insurance costs is a tax on jobs, which hurts us even if it is less here than somewhere else.

The next round of tax increases is largely unavoidable, but longer-term, there is hope for savings.

Paul Trause, director of the Department of Labor and Industries, proposes an overhaul in the system for workers who can't go back to their old jobs. The current system, he says, spends too much money on counselors and not enough on training. He proposes a system of technical scholarships and lump-sum cash grants, which he says could work better and cost less.

Under the lump-sum grant, the state would calculate the expected cost of a worker's claim and pay it in cash.

Organized labor argues against this, saying that the worker may be enticed to act against his long-term interests. That question should be part of the debate.

Now is the time to consider all these things. The only thing that needs to be agreed on is that the goal of the system is re-employment at the best job compatible with the employee's health, and that the cost of the system should be affordable.

And, if our system can be so good that it attracts companies here, so much the better. Right now, this state can use every advantage it can get.