Round 2 of Pinnacol fight heats up at Capitol
By Paula Noonan 
| August 6, 2009 | 5:01 AM
The Pinnacol Assurance smackdown that started last winter is heating up this summer at the Capitol as an interim legislative committee begins meeting. The committee will examine Pinnacol’s business, salaries and rates as well as its $500 million surplus.
Pinnacol is workers’ comp insurer of last resort
Pinnacol underwrites workers’ compensation insurance for businesses across the state, with its primary mission as the insurer of last resort. A quasigovernmental entity, Pinnacol controls more than 60 percent of Colorado’s entire workers’ comp market.
Senator faces off against Pinnacol president
State Sen. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, a longtime critic of the insurance industry, heads the interim committee. She will face off against Pinnacol’s president, Ken Ross, who is also a member of the committee.
Suffice it to say, it’s unusual to have the president of a company that is under examination on the examining board. Republicans flexed their muscles to allow Ross and Pinnacol board member Gary Johnson to join the committee and bring their knowledge to the investigation.
Fight began in winter; will it end in summer?
The wrestling match began in the 2009 legislative session when the state started a rapid descent into a budget crisis. Hundreds of millions shy of balancing the state budget, the Democratic-controlled legislature looked everywhere for money. Sen. Al White, R-Steamboat Springs, suggested at a Joint Budget Committee meeting that Pinnacol’s surplus might be available to bridge the budget gap.
Pinnacol vigorously contested Senate Bill 281, which targeted the company’s business. It encouraged hundreds of its employees and people whom it insures to attend hearings and picket the Capitol.
Pinnacol won that match when Gov. Bill Ritter, under pressure from Pinnacol and the business community, pulled the plug on the bill. Bill sponsors Sen. Brandon Shaffer, D-Longmont and now Senate president, and Rep. Paul Weissmann, D-Louisville and House majority leader, extended the match through the interim committee.
If not Pinnacol, then who?
The legislature will need to scrounge for even more money in the 2010 session, so Pinnacol remains a tempting target.
Pinnacol wants to reduce its relationship with the state by paying yearly taxes and offering a one-time payment of roughly $100 million to cover 20 years when it didn’t give any money to the state. Carroll may be unimpressed by the bid. Another option would put Pinnacol on the auction block to the highest bidder.
Almost 200 lobbyists have registered on the bill, with big interests supporting and opposing. The fight puts the squeeze on the Ritter, who wants to make business happy, but if no settlement occurs, college students may be the next picketers on the Capitol steps as the state turns to higher education cuts to help fix the budget mess.
Paula Noonan is with Colorado Capitol Watch.
legislature, morgan carroll, pinnacol assurance, politics, state budget
