As the Labor Committee started a week’s worth of hearings on workers comp legislation, the Baldacci administration made known it’s unlikely to support any proposals that don’t come from the divisive Workers’ Compensation Board itself.

“Although the system is certainly not perfect, the law vested the fate of the system in the hands of the people with the most at stake, the employees and employers of this state,” said Robert “Buddy” Murray, commissioner of the Department of Professional and Financial Regulation.

The board is composed of four directors picked by the Maine State Chamber of Commerce and four picked by the AFL-CIO.

“The administration is not likely to support changes unless the changes emanate from or are endorsed by the board,” he added.

Four bills came before the Labor Committee Tuesday. One would allow the board to tap into its reserve account, another would raise the amount the board assesses business to fund its budget. Those were both unanimously supported by the board.

Two others would remove the authority to appoint hearing officers from the board and give it to the executive director, among other things. Presently, two hearing officers whose terms ran out on Dec. 31 are still working and issuing decisions because the board has deadlocked over their hire or fire.

The four proposals were largely panned by insurance industry and supported by labor during three hours of testimony.

One bill, LD 35, would increase the cap on the amount the board can assess to employers in Maine from $6.8 million to $8.3 million next year. While business blasted the 21 percent increase – several people criticized the board for raising its budget while others go with less – Executive Director Paul Dionne said his budget will actually go down next year.

The assessment was designed by the Legislature to fund the agency. That worked fine until 1997, Dionne said, when the Legislature approved the Worker Advocate program, giving injured workers free counsel in their legal battles with insurance companies. The program was given $500,000 to operate, but costs $1.6 million, Dionne said.

This last year, businesses with insurance paid a 1.54 percent surcharge on premiums and self-insureds paid a dollar amount that totaled $5.6 million. The board’s actual budget was $8.8 million, the difference made up by surplus money from last year and funds in a reserve account.

The reserve account is now nearly empty. In reality, Dionne said, the assessment probably should have gone up slightly several years in a row to avoid this large jump. And it’s only the most they could collect, he said, it doesn’t mean that they will.

“If we don’t get the increase we will lose the Worker Advocate program,” he said. There are about 2,000 open cases in the program currently.

Without the program, “You’ll find that massive numbers of people will be settling their cases cheap because of red tape,” said Ralph Tucker, representing the AFL-CIO.

Insurers complained that it would raise workers comp rates for business.

Kevin Gillis, representing the Maine Merchants Association self-funded workers comp trust, was one of several people to speak against the idea of moving the authority over the hearing officers. He also pointed out that LD 658 would move the position of executive director to a five-year term. Language in the bill doesn’t make it clear, he said, that if the executive director was not reappointed by majority vote, whether he would continue to serve, which is the same problem faced with the hearing officers now.

That bill also moves the appointment process for directors from the State and Local Government Committee to the Labor Committee.

Hearings on seven other bills continue Wednesday and Thursday afternoon.