Article by Erik Smith. Published on Saturday, May 21, 2011 EST.

Lawmakers Spend Five Hours Trying to Hammer Out a Compromise – Plenty of Players Invited Behind Closed Doors

Gregoire press secretary Cory Curtis runs the gauntlet at the door to the governor’s office as lawmakers meet inside on workers’ comp.

By Erik Smith

Staff writer/ Washington State Wire

OLYMPIA, May 21.—Sounds like a budget deal will be announced today, but workers’ comp remains the holdup as the final gavel approaches for the first special session of the 2011 Legislature.

            A five-hour negotiating session in the governor’s office ended Friday night with no deal on workers’ comp. Talks resume this morning, but no one seems to be holding their breath. And with adjournment coming on Wednesday, the question becomes whether frustrated members will try to force a second special session, or whether the clock will simply be allowed to run out on workers’ comp.

            Senate Minority Leader Mike Hewitt, R-Walla Walla, said Friday that a deal is likely to be reached on the budget today, though you won’t be reading about it before members are briefed. “The worst thing is for them to read about it in the newspapers,” he said.

            Workers’ comp reform is a different matter – the single biggest issue for business this year, and a high-priority item for everyone from the governor on down, except, apparently, the House Democratic Caucus. A sweeping business-backed reform bill has been stuck in the House for the last nine weeks. Democrats led by House Speaker Frank Chopp have taken the side of labor, blocking a vote on the measure.

            Instead of working things out in committee, it has come down to the talks that are now taking place in the governor’s office. There seems to be a new earnestness to the negotiations, now that it has become clear that at least 25 members of the Senate appear prepared to vote no on the budget until a worker-comp bill is approved.

            Watching the Door at the Governor’s Office

            For the working press, it was a rather tedious yet almost interesting five hours watching the closed door at the governor’s office Friday night. It was the kind of experience that made you wonder how many times you could read the single newspaper you’d brought, right down to the want ads, and whether some new bargain might be found in the Fry’s ad on the seventh look. Normally sessions like these don’t last very long, perhaps a half-hour, 45 minutes tops. And when something lasts longer than that – it’s a sign something is up. 

First came the members who had been designated to negotiate the issue for their various caucuses. Cary Condotta for the House Republicans, Mike Sells and Tami Green for the House Democrats, Janea Holmquist-Newbry for the Senate Republicans, Jeanne Kohl-Welles for the Senate Democrats.

After an hour, the parade of interests began. Representatives of the Association of Washington Business and Boeing were waved inside. Then came the trial lawyers.

            Labor had participated in a meeting earlier at the governor’s office earlier in the day.

Then the party leaders started showing up – Hewitt, Lisa Brown of the Senate Democrats, Frank Chopp himself. All did their best to enter the door before reporters could pop off a question.

            Occasionally one of the players would pop out and run the gauntlet. They had no choice. The reporters stood between them and the rest room. “We’re pounding away and we’re pushing,” declared Gregoire policy adviser Jim Justin. “We’ve got five days left.”

            And things started sounding doubly portentious when Gregoire press secretary Cory Curtis popped out to say that there was serious talk of sending out for pizza. It could be a while.

            But finally they packed it in for the night, with no deal.

            ‘Structured Settlements’ the Issue

             The central issue all along has been whether to permit injured workers to settle their claims for a lump sum, rather than taking pensions – the only option now permitted under the state-run industrial worker-comp program. Workers are expected to take the offer in huge numbers, even though the offer would represent a slightly lower payout, and it would put the financially troubled system back in good standing. Eventually it would reduce the pressure that has been driving up payroll taxes every year. But labor hates the idea, saying that it would be a lousy deal for injured workers.

            House Democrats came back with an idea that would mandate “structured settlements” – part pension, part annuity, for older workers only, a complicated plan whose details have not been fully explained publicly. No similar program is mandated in any of the other 44 states that allow lump-sum settlements.

            Republicans are dubious. Said Holmquist-Newbry, “I can tell you if I was an injured worker and 55 [years old] and I was offered the current system versus this, I don’t know what the incentive would be to do something that looks so similar to what we already have.”

            So far, no deal. Stay tuned.


Tami Green and Mike Sells on the way inside.


There’s Cary Condotta!


And that blurry figure on the right is state Sen. Janea Holmquist-Newbry.

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