Anyone Notice WC Law Changes?

Tuesday, September 23, 2014 | 0

It not only appears that the Workers' Comp Board’s move from Menands to Schenectady was legal, but WCL §146 Office of the Board was changed last year as part of the annual budget bill.

The old law read:

§ 146 Offices of the board. The principal office of the Board shall be in the city of Albany ….

The new law reads:

§ 146. Offices of the board. There shall be an office of the board in the city of New York and at such other place or places in the state as may be required properly and conveniently to transact the business of the board.

How did this happen?

Simple. A bill of several hundred or even a few thousand pages is being prepared to be printed, distributed to the members of the Legislature and voted on. This is the moment that lobbyists live for: they simply have someone stick a page or two into the document just before it is sent for final printing. Since most members (99%) of the legislators do not read the entirety of the bills presented for a vote, if they read any of it at all, almost anything can be stuck into the bill. And when there are those who see it, such a ‘minor’ item has no meaning and it just gets ignored. The bill gets distributed, voted upon by the Assembly and Senate and then goes to the Governor for signature and, most likely, his office does not read every single page in the bill.

As House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said about ObamaCare:

    “But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it ...”

Well, if this policy of "pass it and then read it" is good enough for our nation’s representatives and senators, can we expect any less from our state's senators and Assembly members?

So who knows what else that favors the Board's administration has been stuck in a bill by some lobbyist for the Board or a real estate mogul, something that makes life better for the Board’s executive staff and at best, doesn’t do any more of a disservice to injured workers as is the case now?

Michael T. Berns is a former member of the New York Workers' Compensation Board. This column was reprinted with his permission from his Inside Workers Comp NY blog.