KINDER FILES FORMAL PROTEST OVER HIKE IN WORKER'S COMP RATE

Republican state senatorial candidate Peter Kinder announced Monday that he had filed a formal protest with the Missouri Department of Insurance over a proposed 23.9 percent increase in workers' compensation rates.

Kinder said the rate increase information provided to the insurance department by the National Council on Compensation Insurance justifies no more than a 4.7 percent rise in rates.

"Expert testimony I have been provided clearly shows that Missouri business will be overcharged by $134.4 million a year if the department fully grants this outrageous increase," said Kinder. "As leaders in Missouri, we should work tirelessly to keep our businesses and protect the jobs they create."

Kinder, who said he is not an expert on workers' compensation, explained that filing a protest is a right of any citizen. "I am doing this to dramatize the issue; this is an attempt to act - to do something.

"Any citizen or candidate could have taken this action. I did."

Kinder discussed the issue at a news conference at Blattner Steel Co. in Cape Girardeau. He was accompanied by Rick Blattner, owner of the company.

Skyrocketing costs of workers' compensation insurance have cost the state jobs and threaten the survival of many small companies like Blattner, Kinder said. "These jobs are what's on the line here."

In his letter to the insurance department, Kinder said he urged it to grant only an increase necessary to insure proper payment to injured workers.

Kinder said he was especially upset that in the current request NCCI is asking 4.1 percent of the total increase to guarantee profitability.

Said Kinder: "And I say to that: There are a lot of businesses in Southeast Missouri that would love somebody to guarantee them a profit. The big insurance lobby shouldn't be given guarantees that the average businessman in Southeast Missouri doesn't get."

Kinder explained that his conclusions are based on a detailed analysis he received from Kenneth L. Robinson, who represented NCCI in these type of rate hearings in Missouri and other states for 23 years. He now runs a workers' compensation evaluation firm in St. Louis.

Kinder, who is unopposed for the Republican nomination in the 27th District, displayed a chart showing how rates had increased nearly 70 percent since 1985, including 32 percent in the last two years.

"There are a number of people who call themselves businessmen and legislators who have stood by over the years while these increases have been mounting and threatening our jobs and economic future," said Kinder. "Maybe the issue is too complex and confounds their understanding, but to save jobs in our community I believe you have to reach out and find the technical experience to seek new solutions and fight off failed policies."

Kinder said he supports taking a close look at whether the state should go to competitive rates and no longer rely on NCCI for making rate recommendations in workers' compensation.

He said workers' compensation reform is something that should be done in a comprehensive way rather than piecemeal. "The bill signed by the governor earlier this year is an important first step, but only a first step," said Kinder.