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The two major Albuquerque newspapers missed pointing out to the public what happened on April 18. It should have been on the front page on April 19th as well as being featured as a major editorial! The TV stations missed it, too.

What happened? The Legislative Council met and the two main leaders of the legislature, Ray Sanchez, Speaker of the House, and Manny Aragon, Senate Pro Tem (both Democrat trial lawyers) appointed the interim committees for the New Mexico State Legislature. THE committee that could have the biggest impact on job development in New Mexico was the Workers Compensation Oversight Committee.

Sanchez and Aragon appointed eight voting members to this committee which will recommend changes to the present workers' comp law. Four are trial lawyers (3 Democrats, 1 Republican); one is a Sandia Laboratory employee (a Democrat, union-endorsed); one is a retired Albuquerque City employee (a Democrat, union-endorsed); one doctor (a Republican); and one man who owns an appraising business who has five or six employees (a Democrat).

The committee also has one advisory member, a retired teacher/principal (a Democrat, union-endorsed). This is a fairly small committee so it will be easily controlled. Putting four trial lawyers and only one employer on this committee is a slap in the face to all business owners in New Mexico!

Most business owners don't know anything about this newly appointed committee because of the lack of publicity. Albuquerque Economic Forum and other business groups should be raising all kinds of hell over the appointments. It was a first-degree mugging!

To add insult to injury, both the Chairman and the Vice Chairman of this committee are Democrat trial lawyers and both are union-endorsed. This is a dream committee for the trial lawyers and will turn into a nightmare for the business community.

Trial lawyers will be able to get any changes they want to the Workers Compensation Act passed by this committee. Any proposed changes passed by this committee to the Workers Compensation Law will be introduced in the next legislature as committee bills. (Committee Bills always have a much higher rate of passage than any other bills that are introduced.)

Why do the trial lawyers want these changes now?

Three years ago when we revised the Workers Compensation Law, Senator Marty Chavez and Representative Fred Peralta were co-chairmen of the revisions committee. They gave their word to everyone involved that they would fight anyone who tried to change the law until it had a chance to work. They had been doing an excellent job of keeping their word. The trial lawyers have been trying to change the law but Fred and Marty were stopping them. (Trial Lawyers have not been getting as rich on Workers Compensation lawsuits as they would prefer.)

Now both men are no longer in the legislature. (Marty is the new Mayor of Albuquerque and Fred is the new Mayor of Taos.) Now no one is going to stop the trial lawyers from changing the law.

A couple of years ago in Bullet #9, I pointed out how trial lawyers were collecting $83.33 on the same day of each month from many of their members. (This information is a matter of public record and comes from their Political Action Committee Reports which they are required to file with the Secretary of State.) I indicated that $83.33 x 12 months = $1000.00 per trial lawyer per year. (Many were having the $83.33 donation charged to their credit cards.) I told people that the trial lawyers' Political Action Committees were raising about $75,000 per year for their war chest to help elect candidates who will vote for what the trial lawyers wanted.

Three years ago, 90% of the candidates supported by the Trial Lawyers Political Action Committee were Democrats. I also pointed out that the two biggest receivers of trial lawyers' money were the Speaker of the House, Raymond Sanchez, and President Pro Tem of the Senate, Manny Aragon. Trial Lawyers were also one of the largest contributors to the Bruce King gubernatorial campaign in 1990.

Because of this money, the trial lawyers and union bosses just about control the present Democrat leadership in New Mexico. The business community does nothing so we have a lousy business climate and continue to rank as 46th in average income among the 50 states.

In Bullet #38, I reported asking the Attorney General for a ruling if the trial lawyers would be breaking the new ethics law if they gave campaign contributions to Supreme Court candidates. This was twelve months ago.

Still, I have had no answer from Attorney General Udall about my request. Many agree with me that we might have a fairer court if the practice of lawyers giving to the supreme court candidates was stopped.

If Attorney General Tom Udall stalls much longer, we won't need a ruling for another two years........just what the trial lawyers want and so goes New Mexico politics. It never seems to get any better.

Recently I received a copy of a letter mailed by a member of the Legislature, Representative Patricia Baca, a Democrat. In the letter she says that in the next legislative session she will sponsor a rent control bill. She also enclosed a copy of the recorded vote on a 1994 memorial which she sponsored requesting that the State Housing Authority look at rent control. The hand-written notes on the copy I received, indicate that all Republicans voted against it. What she did not point out is that all major Democrat leaders had voted for the memorial, including House Speaker Raymond Sanchez, Majority Leader Mike Olguin, Majority Whip Ben Lujan, and the Democrat Caucus Leader Ramon Huerta as well as these House Democrats: Abeyta, Atcitty, P. Baca, Coll, Foy, Gallegos, Garcia, Gurule, Hawk, Luna, Madalena, D. Martinez, Miera, Morgan, Paul, Pederson, Peralta, Perez, Porter, Rodella, Saavedra, Salazar, Sandoval, Silva, Taylor, Torrez, Townsend, Varela, Ima Wells, Darla Whitney-Wells, Wright.

You could easily call this a "Democrat's" bill. These Democrats do not care that rent control is anti-business and wherever rent control is put into place housing and slums develop. (Look at New York City!) Why aren't the many pro-business groups in New Mexico pointing out this anti-business effort??????

In March I asked for money to help send out these Bullets. I did not get my usual good response. So I am asking again. Probably there are two reasons I did so poorly.

1. Too much competition... There are 7 candidates for governor, 4 for U. S. Senate and 8 for U. S. Congress.

Remember that the Bullets, with 10,000 addresses, cost $5,000 per mailing, tell many people around the entire state what really happens and who controls Santa Fe.

2. Some people know that my first cousin is Warren Buffett. He rates as the richest man in the United States. Because of this, I am told some of you have decided that I don't need any financial help with the Bullets. WRONG! He's a Democrat and has never given me a single donation! I think it bothers him that I am better looking even though he is richer and two years younger.

My uncle, Warren's father, is one of the reasons I think like I do. After my father was killed and I was in high school in New Mexico, my uncle was a Congressman from Nebraska. He sent me many conservative articles that he wrote, which gave me my fiscally responsible ideas which continue to this day.

Enclosed with this issue of the Bullets are articles that will help tie everything together.

READ THEM!!!

Sincerely,

George Buffett

P.S. As my college-age daughter might say, "Please send money." Look at this copy of the Bullet. See all the information about state government including rent control, trial lawyers, Workers' Compensation and worthless business groups, how bills get passed, who votes for what....where else will you find this information?

P.P.S. People are asking me how I am going to vote in the primary election. I support the following in contested races:

1. U.S. Senator Colin McMillan
2. Governor Gary Johnson
3. Lieutenant Governor Walter Bradley

The Albuquerque Journal

Tuesday, May 17, 1994

Editorials

Protect Workers' Law

New Mexico's workers' compensation system is widely praised as a model for reform in other states. Legislators should resist pressure to make any drastic changes.

The law has helped bring down the cost of doing business in New Mexico without reduction in the benefits paid to workers. Several years ago, the state's workers' compensation system was a disaster. It was cited as a factor in numerous business failures, blamed for driving some businesses out of state and for discouraging others from locating in the state.

The legislative battle to overhaul the system was acrimonious and long-lasting. It pitted insurance companies, attorneys, business, labor and medical providers against one another. Finally, a new law was worked out by representatives of business and labor. Few were wholly satisfied with the result, but most agreed to give it a five-year trial without changes. Dissatisfaction persists, particularly among those who lost business because of the changes, but the law appears to be working well.

Some oppose a sensible provision that virtually prohibits payment of lump sums to settle cases. Insurance companies would prefer settling a case all at once in order to get the case off the company's books. Lawyers representing injured workers would like to be able to get the workers' awards in one lump -- more susceptible to deduction of legal fees -- than in minor monthly payments.

Between 1992 and 1993, costs for workers' compensation in New Mexico decreased by $9 million, or just under 5 percent. Gov. Bruce King noted that last year's decline in workers' compensation insurance rates was the first since he took office for his first term in 1971.

The system has been in place for nearly five years. Gerald B. Stuyvesant, director of the New Mexico Workers' Compensation Administration, reports there is pressure from some players for key changes to be made in the law by the 1995 Legislature.

The Legislature should resist the pressure. An overhaul of the five-year-old workers' compensation law could put the state back where it was before the 1990 change: a place where the cost of workers' compensation was becoming too large a part of the cost of doing business.

The Albuquerque Journal

BUSINESS OUTLOOK - WEEK OF MONDAY, MAY 16,1994

Speakers Urge Hands Off Workers' Comp System

By Janelle Conaway
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Workers' compensation reforms, which have helped bring down the cost of doing business in New Mexico, could be at risk if the Legislature tries to overhaul the system again next year, says the director of the New Mexico Workers' Compensation Administration.

Gerald B. Stuyvesant urged insurance agents, lawyers, medical providers and others involved in workers' compensation to help keep the current system intact.

"Your enlightened support is really going to be necessary in 1995 if you would like to see the reforms continue as they have," he said at last week's annual conference of the Workers' Compensation Association of New Mexico.

His message was echoed by several other speakers. In opening remarks at the conference, Gov. Bruce King noted that last year's decline in workers' compensation insurance rates was the first since he took office in his first term in 1971. He stressed the need to support the reforms already in place and keep the system nonpartisan.

"We've done the difficult things, but we need to stay the course," he said.

Two national speakers, meanwhile, said New Mexico has become one of the states to copy in workers' compensation reform.

Robert Arrigan, chief judge of the Rhode Island Workers' Compensation Commission, reviewed his own state's erratic record of fiddling with workers' compensation and said many of the successful 1992 changes were based on New Mexico's experience.

"For God's sake, you have a decent reform, a good reform," he said. "It's imperative that you leave it alone. Let the thing work."

C. John Urling, a commissioner with the Workers' Compensation Appeal Board in Pennsylvania, agreed. He warned that the reforms in place here could be affected not only by changes at the state level, but at the federal level, too. There is talk in Washington about including workers' compensation in national health-care reform, he said.

"That's frightening, because they have no concept of what we do," Urling said. He encouraged participants at the conference to stay abreast of the issue and stay in touch with their congressional delegation.

"You're doing so well here. I'd hate to see it go down the drain," he said.

Clearly, not everyone in New Mexico is thrilled with the workers' compensation system. In an interview, Stuyvesant said he has heard "rumblings" that some players will seek key changes in next January's legislative session.

When New Mexico's workers' compensation system was overhauled in 1990, legislative leaders "more or less agreed to keep hands off the comp law" for five years, according to Stuyvesant. Now that 1995 is in sight, he expects increased pressure for another round of changes.

One provision of the current law that many people oppose is the virtual prohibition on paying out lump sums to settle cases. Instead of receiving a large sum at once, an injured worker typically gets a relatively small compensation check every week.

Stuyvesant said in an interview that insurance companies often would rather settle cases all at once and get them off their books, while lawyers representing workers would like to be able to get them hefty awards.

The ban on lump-sum settlements is "not popular with most folks on both sides, but it's the right thing to do," he said.

The change has cut fraudulent and frivolous claims, Stuyvesant said. The prospect of a $10,000 or $20,000 check may motivate people to "stretch the truth," he said, but the picture changes when the amount under discussion is $30 a week for 10 years.

"I know some of you find the prohibition against lump-sum settlements to be a pain in the neck," he told the conference, "but I'd like you to continue to put up with it because it's saving us millions of dollars."

The 1990 changes -- which were made by business and labor working together -- included other provisions that some people didn't like. Attorneys' fees were capped, for example, and vocational rehabilitation evaluations were no longer mandatory. Those changes cut costs, but they hurt some people's businesses, Stuyvesant said.

"Each time you reduce workers' compensation costs, you're obviously taking that money from somewhere," he said. However, he noted, it's important to remember that costs in the system are going down without a reduction in benefits to workers.

The total cost of workers' compensation in the state decreased by $9 million, or just under 5 percent, between 1992 and 1993, he said.

Businesses -- "the Intels of the world" -- no longer see the New Mexico workers' compensation system as an impediment to operating here, Stuyvesant said.

Besides being wary about possible legislative action, Stuyvesant said he is also concerned about several recent workers' compensation decisions from state appellate courts.

In several cases, he said, the decisions seemed to be weighted more on the side of the worker. Stuyvesant believes the Legislature intended a more even-handed approach that would consider both the worker's and the employer's concerns.

Much of the Workers' Compensation Association's conference addressed technical issues such as the American Medical Association's guidelines for determining impairments and ways to improve safety in the workplace.

The group also awarded its first scholarship, designed to help the dependent of a worker who is seriously injured or killed. A $4,000 scholarship went to Cynthia Cline, daughter of slain police officer Gerald Cline, who was killed in the line of duty in 1983.

Recently, several sources of financial benefits connected with her father's death have run out, according to the association's president, Toby Wright.

Cynthia Cline, a senior at Albuquerque High School, plans to attend the University of New Mexico.

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