L&I Budget Center
2007-09 Budget Overview
Projected RevenueThe money comes from:Workers' comp funds are premiums paid by employers and workers, investment income and other revenue. Learn more. |
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Projected ExpendituresThe money goes:L&I is authorized to spend $536.7 million during the 2007-2009 Biennium to operate the workers' compensation program and provide other programs and services. |
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The 2007-09 Biennial budget has an allocation of $428.3 million from workers' comp state and federal funds to cover operating costs.2009-11 Budget Overview
Helping L&I improve responsiveness; reduce costs
The final 2009-2011 state budget clearly contains many sacrifices for Washingtonians in reduced government services. Facing a $9 billion shortfall, the Legislature confronted some extremely difficult decisions in finalizing their 2009-11 budget. While the Department of Labor & Industries was not immune to General Fund cuts and cuts affecting all agencies, including the continued imposition of a salary freeze and other reductions, the Governor and Legislature also recognized the key role the department plays in improving the workers’ compensation system, improving workplace safety and protecting consumers and wage earners. The budget includes both efficiencies and additional expenditures to streamline our operations.
New biennial budget
The budget includes provisions that will help us do our jobs more efficiently during the challenging times ahead.
Specifically, the budget funds:
- Early Claim Solutions, which will reduce the time it takes to receive and process an injured worker’s initial report of accident.
- Better underwriting services to help employers comply with reporting premiums correctly.
- Increasing the number and quality of approved and available independent medical examiners for claims.
- Improvements in the Prevailing Wage program to foster voluntary compliance, educate contractors who are out of compliance and reduce the current case backlog.
- Enhanced technology to detect employer fraud.
- New Self-Insurance audit technology that will allow us to track and trend compliance and target areas for audit.
- A new bilingual safety position to improve our ability to communicate with Spanish-speaking workers.
Implementing other legislation
L&I will be involved in implementing several other pieces of legislation, including:
- Health-care administrative improvements, which involves a multi-agency effort to improve health-care delivery.
- New tools and authority for combating the underground economy, including the ability to issue stop-work orders when businesses willfully ignore their legal requirement to register for workers’ compensation insurance, and extending another year the Joint Legislative Task Force on the Underground Economy.
- Benefits for registered domestic partners, as they relate to workers’ compensation and crime victim beneficiaries and wage and hour.
- Apprenticeship utilization, extending the requirements to higher education, and new requirements and sanctions for noncompliance for individual employers.
- Contact with medical providers after industrial insurance appeals have been filed.
General Fund Cuts
The biggest impact to the L&I budget will be reductions of about $2.7 million to the General Fund programs – Contractor Registration, Elevators, Factory Assembled Structures and Crime Victims. Since the Legislature gave us the authority to decide how to implement the reductions, we will be working with staff and our stakeholders to make these reductions with the least possible impact on service delivery.
As we implement the requirements of this budget, we will continue our commitment to fairness, transparency, and economic vitality.
More information regarding the state budget is available on Governor Gregoire’s Web site at http://www.governor.wa.gov/priorities/budget/default.asp.
