Iowa Federation of Labor Questions Values Fund Deal
by Mark L. Smith, President, IFL
I am
writing on behalf of our officers and members to urge your opposition
to two parts of the legislative package that will be considered in the
special session. The first is the depreciation package for businesses
and the second is the workers’ compensation changes.
The $70
million business tax break would allow businesses to immediately and
retroactively (back to September of ’01) deduct expenses that would
otherwise have been deducted over a period of several years. Handing
out this $70 million provides no new economic stimulus. Instead, the
break is simply a windfall for businesses who have already made
purchases. (www.iowapolicyproject.org/reports/ & www.cfpciowa.org)
Iowa’s
traditional priorities, including schools and public safety, are
currently suffering from inadequate budgets, while taxpayers are being
forced to make up the difference with higher local taxes and increasing
fees. To hand out a $70 million tax break at such a time is illogical.
Iowa’s school children will pay the price.
Workers’
compensation is a social compact in which employers promise to pay
workers who are injured in the course of their employment for the
economic and medical costs they incur as a result of a work injury. In
return workers gave up the right to sue for damages.
The
rules that govern the payments are derived from a mixture of
legislation, court cases and agency decisions. The resulting “Body of
Law” is often arbitrary and confusing to practitioners and especially
to non-practitioners.
The
apportionment proposal that is being offered in the current legislative
package is very confusing and is likely to generate a great deal of
litigation. What is not confusing is that twice-injured workers will
receive a drastic cut in benefits, which will create major hardships
for disabled, often unemployed workers. The estimated cost of the
apportionment proposal to some four to five hundred severely injured
workers, is $13 million annually.
The
future impact of the apportionment proposal is to erode the social
compact by transferring the costs associated with work injuries from
the employer to society at large in the form of increased social
welfare costs.
However,
the proposed legislation goes well beyond apportionment and redesigns
the whole concept of industrial disability. The “fresh start” proposal
will clearly cut benefits for other injured workers. We have no
estimate by how much.
Further,
this portion of the proposed legislation hasn’t been discussed by
practitioners or by legislators. The workers’ compensation commissioner
is simply codifying his opinion in the Amana Meat case. It is
inappropriate to do so. For more information on the Workers’
Compensation proposal see www.iowaaflcio.org.
The
legislative package that has been built around the Iowa Values Fund is
being characterized as a compromise. It is not. It is a blatant
exercise in political log-rolling that will cause a major benefit cut
for a few injured workers. Governor Vilsack’s call for “making our
state a better place and improving the quality of life for all of our
people” needs to include injured workers.
Government,
really, is about deciding who benefits and who pays. A cursory analysis
shows in this instance, that the costs will be borne disproportionately
by injured workers and our children. The benefits accrue to businesses
in the form of economic development money and tax cuts. This is
unacceptable.
CALL TO ACTION
Tell your legislators not to cut Workers' Compensation benefits for the most vulnerable injured workers.
The Iowa
Legislature is going into special session on September 7, 2004.
As a part of a deal to pass the Grow Iowa Values Fund, the Governor and
Republican leaders have also agreed to pass devastating cuts in
benefits for workers who sustain multiple permanent injuries.
These
cuts will drastically impact some of Iowa's most vulnerable injured
workers, those who have sustained more than one permanent injury.
Many of these workers are no longer able to continue in their current
job and must find a way to pay their bills and support their families
while they retrain for a different job. Any cut in benefits at
this critical time could have a substantial, adverse impact on the rest
of a worker's life.
Please send a letter to your legislators urging them to vote against the proposed cuts in Workers' Compensation benefits.
Click here to send a letter to your Iowa legislators. Just fill in your name and address and an appropriate message will be sent on your behalf.
The message from Mark L. Smith originally appeared on the Drury for Iowa Senate website.
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