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Text Box: to the Legislature which have been reviewed by the Labor Committee and five confirmed by the Senate. The six members will join the Executive Director who has already been appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate. The Executive Director also serves as Chair of the Board. The new Workers’ Compensation Board consists of the following members: Chair, Paul R. Dionne; Labor—Anthony

Text Box: threshold. These are issues of particular importance to both Labor and Management, but issues on which they have been unable to reach consensus. The legislation sponsored by Governor Baldacci , which changed the board to a 7-member, as opposed to an 8-member, board envisioned the

Text Box: Executive Director’s role to be a facilitator first and a tie-breaker second. However, the ability to facilitate agreement is dependent on the management and labor directors being willing to compromise. If one or both are unable or unwilling to do so, then it is the Chair’s role to break the tie in order to avoid deadlock.

Text Box: And, the 2008 Edition of Workers' Compensation State Rankings Manufacturing Industry Costs provides a costs comparison for the manufacturing sector in 45 states. The purpose of the study is to provide a comparison as to the cost of obtaining workers' compensation coverage among states. Maine's rank was 30th among 45 states and Maine's rank was 3rd among the New England states with only Massachusetts and Rhode Island faring better than Maine. The Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services

Text Box: It was not too long ago that Maine was one of the costliest states in the nation in regard to workers' compensation costs. A recent article in the Workers' Compensation Policy Review compared the cost of benefits for 47 states and highlighted Maine's achievements during the past few years: "The experience in Maine … clearly demonstrates that significant reduction in cash, medical, and total benefits are possible." In a recent report, Fiscal Data for State Workers' Compensation Systems, designed to provide employers and public policymakers

Text Box: with comparative statistics on state workers' compensation costs, Maine was listed as one of the states with the largest decrease in its benefit costs rate: Alabama (-7.9%), Colorado (-11.2%), Kansas (-16.5%), Maine (-12.9%), Nevada (-14.7%), Rhode Island (-15.2%), and Utah (-13.2%). In the most recent issue of Workers’ Compensation Policy Review (September/October 2008), it was reported that Maine has been at the national average for “cash benefits, medical benefits and total cash and medical benefits.”

Monfiletto and Ginette Rivard; Management—James Mingo, Mitchell Sammons, and Sophia Leotsakos-Wilson.

Due to the unfortunate death of Bruce Roy, the AFL-CIO will have to submit a Labor representative to the Governor, who will have to be nominated by the Governor, approved by the Labor Committee, and confirmed by the Senate.

Chapter 208, A Resolve enacted by the 123rd Legislature, provides that the AFL-CIO and Chamber of Commerce submit to the Governor three lists of names of proposed board members to the Board. The Governor must then nominate three management and three labor representatives to serve on the Workers’ Compensation Board.

The Governor has nominated six candidates and sent the nominations

In breaking those ties, the Chair is mindful of the positions of both sides and the impact to the workers’ compensation system as a whole. Since the inception of the legislation, the board resolved most of the gridlock issues and has functioned in an effective manner in setting policy for board business.

reports every two years as to overall premium costs per State. In 2002 Maine's ranking among the 50 states was 8^th; in 2004, it was ranked at 13^th; in 2006 it was ranked at 8^th;; and in 2008 it was ranked 6^th.

Maine has gone from one of the costliest states in the nation to one that is moving to the level of average costs and has positioned itself to continue this trend. Maine appears to have struck a balance between reasonable costs and reasonable benefits, all within the Governor's (Cont’d on pg 4)

Workers’ Compensation Board Appointments