Today L&I Director Judy Schurke announced that the agency would not announce next year’s anticipated workers’ comp rates until after the November election.

L&I is using the excuse that I-1082, if passed, will make changes to the system such that the rates proposed now would have to be changed anyway. This would be like Dr. Arun Raha cancelling an Economic and Forecast Council meeting because the vote on I-1098 may impact future tax revenues.

Unfortunately, L&I doesn’t seem to understand that it is supposed to move forward under today’s laws – not those that may be adopted by the voters in November.

What this announcement really means is that L&I doesn’t want to show how much workers’ comp rates will need to go up next year just to keep the trust funds solvent. Their tactic is to duck and cover and hope I-1082 doesn’t pass.

Here is L&I’s press release, followed by the press release from the Save Our Jobs campaign.

Farm Bureau supports I-1082 because our members simply want to have a choice of where to purchase insurance. The only way to hold the public insurer accountable and have competitive rates is to have private options available, too.

In other news, the Save Our Jobs coalition released a new video in support of I-1082 today. Take a look.