OREGON HOUSE REPUBLICAN OFFICE
Taking $1.4 billion from SAIF’s reserve endangers blue-collar workers for public unions’ benefit
SALEM, Ore. – Governor Kate Brown proposes to loot $1.4 billion from SAIF Corp., to pay off the state’s government unions. In doing so, the Governor and her Democrat allies are putting Oregon’s workers at risk.
SAIF is a model non-profit administrator of the state’s worker compensation system covering approximately half the state’s payroll workers. The agency promotes workplace safety and provides financial support for thousands of injured workers in their time of need. It serves in a beneficial manner for all parties. While recent Secretary of State audits reveal many agencies are prone to waste, SAIF has built enviable reserves, annually returning dividends to clients and covering thousands of claims.
“The Governor’s proposed indiscreet confiscation of SAIF’s reserves is a smash and grab, endangering hardworking Oregon wage earners,” said House Republican Leader Rep. Carl Wilson (R-Grants Pass). “Employees and their families depend on SAIF’s worker compensation plans during the dire times when they are injured and can’t work.”
Ironically, cash reserves built on years of workplace safety and sound fiscal practice are viewed as easy pickings to shovel into the ever-deepening PERS pit. Dollars wisely invested to provide returns that enabled SAIF to offer some of the most affordable worker compensation rates in the country, will now be squandered in the Democrats’ endless shell game.
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