GOP wants to continue disputed workers comp system

12/3/2008

COLUMBUS, Ohio GOP lawmakers say want to preserve a system used by the state to set job-injury insurance rates.

A Cuyahoga County judge earlier this month ordered the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation to create by July a new and equitable way to set rates for businesses. A group of businesses had successfully argued that the bureau's group rating system made their premiums unfairly high.

Senate President Bill Harris said Wednesday that Republicans want to continue a system in which groups of businesses receive heavily discounted rates, which opponents say are subsidized by individual businesses.

Republicans want to pass a bill in the final month of the legislative session while they still control both the House and Senate.