The Business Examiner has published an interesting article (subscription required) examining the state's monopoly approach to liquor control and the selling of workers' compensation insurance.
Washington is among the few states that hold business monopolies on those areas, reporters Breanne Coats and Hilary Reeves write in the introduction.
Many business advocates, they write, wonder whether it's best to open up these two services to the private market.
The article quotes Mark Johnson of the Washington Retail Association making the case that state-run liquor stores should be privatized, but the examination of workers' comp is more nuanced.
AWB member Larry Treleven, owner of Tacoma-based Sprague Pest Solutions, notes that "a monopoly in anything is not good," while Kris Tefft, AWB general counsel and government affairs director, finds some good to say about the state's current system as he continues calling needed reforms.
"Our state fund does a good job of fraud prevention and rooting out premiums that ought to be paid in by employers who aren't currently," Tefft says. "On the other side of the ledger, there are some problems with the management of claims."
Tefft notes, for example, that the number of complex claims that remain in the system for years at a time is rising, and he points out the huge disparity between pensions paid out annually in Washington -- 1,800 -- versus Oregon -- nine.
For readers of this blog, the arguments will sound familiar. Last month, Tefft called on state officials during a hearing to fix problems with the workers' comp systems, and he's published several items on the subject in recent months, including this and this.
