Pinnacol is a quasi governmental organisation, not private. They also suck bigtime. When I started auto withdrawls from my bank they started double charging. Useless. When one of my guys gets hurt they jack him around going to thier approved specialists and he waits weeks for treatment. They pay thier execs as if they're a private company. Hope they bleed them dry. If not we'll probably have to raise taxes on the NW portions of the state.

;-)

It doesn't matter if you like Pinnacol or not. The point is this is money paid directly into worker's comp and is not available to use for shortfalls in the state's budget. I hope Pinnacol promptly takes the state to court.

Ritter and our state politicians have been playing around with our money and shuffling and reshuffling. Ritter had his head in the sand and didn't plan properly for the recession that hit Colorado. Last year he publicly stated that he didn't realize it would be as bad as it is. Duh! It does not give him the right to take money that was paid for specific funds like worker's comp. He did the same thing with energy impact funds that were supposed to go towns impacted by energy development.

Colorado itself plans for nothing. Tabor is a bill based on an ideology not a budget. Until Colorado grows up this is what we get. It's only going to get worse until we repeal it.

What's a quasi official company doing anyway, they're socializing the risks and privatising the profits. Lemon socialism. Take it over.

Are you totally dense? This is not money the state can do with as it pleases. It is worker's comp money!!!

Colorado AG John Suthers has stated that its unconstitutional. Colorado lawmakers better not even think about taking that money. It's not theirs.

http://www.denverpost.com/legislature/ci_12119843

Guess you'll have to cough up some extra money if you want your kids to go to college.

So now who's taking from workers? Their employers? No...government.

Employers are the sole contributers to comp. The worker pays nothing. I know because I write checks to Pinnacol once a month and employees every two weeks.

Once that money leaves my hands it become Pinnacol's, they lavish it on large bonuses for sales people, and sky boxes for ball games and who knows what else. And remember Pinnacol is not a private company, they were established by the state and are today still a state company.

A perfect example of the type of socialism established in the 80s. Privatisation of rewards, socialisation of risk.

Myself, I dont' think comp money should be used for other parts of the budget, but then I dont' think Social Security should be used for big tax breaks for rich people either, but it was.

It's been a bad 30 years, the coffers have been looted. Things take a while to clean up.

Yes employers pay for worker's comp and its based on how risky the job is. Low risk, low premium - high risk, high premiums. Basically it is insurance if the employee is injured on the job. So if the state takes the money, it is indeed taking from workers.

Didn't read the link, so forgive me if this info is in it, but CO has a $1.4 Bil shortfall and is plundering $500 mil. 2 questions: That still leaves about a $900mil shortfall... so is this really helping the state budget that much in the end? and how much is left in the worker's comp fund? enough to cover current and potential claims?

The money is being used to keep the Universities afloat, won't cover the entire budget. I heard the #s as to how much is left in the fund on that progam The State of Colorado, seemed like they are taking a third.

The state guarantees the solvency of Pinnacol. That's the socialism part. It's not an entirely private company, only the profits and salary are private. It's all part of that lemon socialism that was the rage a few years ago. Heads they win, tails we lose. The coin just landed on tails.

The one who will end up paying more is me. My rates will go up to cover shortfall in the comp if any. Workers will always be covered. I think I pay around 15%, similar to my and my employees total contribution to Social Security, it's a lot of money.

When a worker does get hurt they get proffessional negotiaters to try to get the employee to settle quickly for a lump sum. It aint pretty.

Anyone else here have employees?