Seize the chance to reform workers’ compensation laws

It may seem a bit naive to suggest that in the face of a $15 billion budget deficit and a looming pension crisis, the legislature has a rare window of opportunity to address long-standing problems with Illinois’ workers’ compensation system, but without question, favorable circumstances exist that are waiting to be seized.

And OK, a 67 percent income tax increase isn’t exactly a favorable circumstance. But the state’s income-tax debacle, combined with the possibility of a federal investigation and a downstate news report detailing millions of dollars in abuses so widespread they suggest a system being used like a piggy bank, has opened the eyes of the governor and the legislature to the simmering resentment of the state’s business community.

With the chairman of Caterpillar leading a chorus of complaints about Illinois’ business climate, meaningful action now could signal that the state is serious about creating jobs and protecting business interests.

Meaningful, of course, is the operative term. The state undertook a revision in 2005 that proved to be no more than window dressing — in some ways actually making the system worse. And the governor’s recent proposal to revise the makeup of the panels hearing workers’ compensation cases serves only as a legitimate start.

Revising the hearing process clearly needs to be part of the workers’ comp solution, but much more also needs to be done. There need to be more realistic limits to payouts and a system for standardizing the costs of various injuries. Perhaps most important of all, we need better definitions that more realistically identify the responsibility of the workplace regarding the injuries for which people seek compensation.

In mid-April, Senate President John Cullerton at least permitted reasonable legislation to get a floor vote. But the bill was doomed by “present” votes from Cullerton and 27 other Democrats, suggesting that political cover was more important to lawmakers than meaningful action.

But it also may well be that Democrats had legitimate misgivings about the levels of reform the legislation established.

The varied interests affected by workers’ comp reform — doctors, lawyers, unions, businesses and more — virtually guarantee a degree of complexity that make reform challenging.

Still, the Senate’s bill provides an outside parameter that suggests a middle ground.

Unquestionably, the state needs a compensation system that protects and supports workers who suffer injury in the act of doing their jobs. But that system needs to be as fair to all concerned as it is generous to the people injured.

With Illinois in a position where it must demonstrate its commitment to a healthy business climate, the time is ripe for meaningful workers’ compensation reform. We must not let the opportunity pass.