News and Press Releases for May 2007

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5/16/2007

Governor Sanford Thanks House for Workers' Comp Reform

Governor Says Senate Should Follow House's Lead and Pass Stronger Workers' Compensation Reforms

Columbia, S.C. - Gov. Mark Sanford today issued the following statement on the workers' compensation reform bill passed by the S.C. House:

"I want to thank the House for taking this step toward fixing our workers' compensation system - a system that's become too subjective, hurts our small businesses' ability to compete, and drives up costs for the average South Carolinian," Gov. Sanford said. "Unfortunately, this bill falls short in one key area, and that's the idea of having objective standards by which to make awards. That being said, we still believe the House's version of the bill would do more toward correcting the imbalances that currently exist in the system, and we'd urge the Senate to move in that direction when this bill gets to conference committee. That's going to take a sustained push from the business community and friends in the legislature who care about these reforms, because unfortunately lawyer-legislators who vote on these reforms, and their partners, have made nearly $8 million since 2004 in workers' comp cases. That's a hurdle we'll have to work together to overcome so that we can have meaningful reform that protects both our state's workers and our state's businesses."

Last year, South Carolina's workers' comp premiums grew more than 18 percent and our state ranks second in the nation since 2000 in terms of how quickly rates have increased. Meanwhile, reform in other states has produced insurance premium rate reductions for their businesses - California has seen a cumulative rate reduction of 55 percent since July 2003 while Florida's workers' compensation filings - which impact the cost of premiums - have seen a 13 percent decrease this year alone.