Utah Fund Privatization Efforts Hitting Road Block

The Desert News on Wednesday reported that efforts to fully privatize the Workers Compensation Fund are stalling, and that the issues involving the transaction may not be resolved by end of the 2003 general session on March 5.The bill, sponsored by Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, would remove Utah's interest in the Fund's assets and operations, and in exchange the state would receive $50 million.Skeptics have derided the bill as insufficient to compensate the state for its equity, and estimates have been published stating that the market value of that equity position is 3 to 4 times as high as B...