Workers comp
bill faces veto

Lingle vows to kill a measure
meant to prevent rule changes
over such benefits

Republican Gov. Linda Lingle is forcing a showdown with the Democratic-controlled state Legislature over a bill to preserve existing workers disability compensation benefits.

For two years, Lingle tried to change the laws, saying they were costing employers money and not allowing workers to speedily get the treatment they needed to get back to work.

The Legislature rejected Lingle's proposals, so this year her labor director added the changes Lingle wanted to a series of "administrative rules" for workers comp cases and adopted the rules.

The Legislature responded by passing a bill saying the rules could not be changed. At first, the bill called for freezing the rules until 2011, after Lingle would be out of office, if she wins a second term next year.

But in the final version of the bill, Senate Bill 1808, the Legislature said the rules could be changed after July 2007.

Lingle is now promising to veto the bill. It's unknown if the Legislature will be able to muster the two-thirds votes needed to override a veto.

"It's a move by the Democrats in the Legislature to say we don't want any reform to the system whatsoever ... and that is simply not acceptable to me, to our labor director, certainly not acceptable to the business community, and should not be acceptable to the working people across the state because the system needs to be been improved," Lingle said during her Wednesday statewide radio broadcast.

Rep. Kirk Caldwell (D, Manoa), Labor Committee chairman, called Lingle's promise to veto "a little like playing chicken on the highway."

"I think it is unfortunate that the governor went this route," he said. "I was hoping the major stakeholders could get together on this."

Caldwell added: "There is disagreement between the Senate factions. I think the House would vote to override, but we are going to wait and see."

State Labor Director Nelson Befitel told the Legislature that businesses in Hawaii say the cost of workers comp insurance is their No. 1 concern.

"A recent national study ranks Hawaii third highest in the entire nation in premiums," he said. "Hawaii's businesses on an average pay $3.48 for every $100 they pay in wages."

In a committee report on the bill, lawmakers said the issue has become one of legislative independence and separation of powers.

"Any delegation of our legislative powers to the executive branch for rule-making is administrative in nature and does not give the executive branch the power to make or change the laws through rule-making," the committee report said.

"The administration has given every indication that it intends to cut workers' rights and benefits retroactively by applying the proposed rules to all claims regardless of when the claims were filed," the report warned.

Small-business advocates, such at Bev Harbin, government affairs representative for Hawaii Independent Physicians Association and legislative coordinator for Hawaii Island Contractors' Association, are urging Lingle to veto the bill.

"They (legislators) are attempting to take away the rules that have been worked on with the business community and doctors for more than a year," Harbin said.

Lingle's new rules call for injured workers to be treated "based on the most current medical best practices."

"The rules would allow doctors the flexibility to treat an injured worker more extensively than what the guidelines may indicate, provided that there is an objective medical justification," Befitel said.

Dr. Bob Sussman, medical director of the Medical Corner, said: "It makes it better in terms that it allows ways to accelerate the treatment based on historic evidence as opposed to saying, 'This is the way we always do it.'"