Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Contact: Jessica Robinson, 573-751-0290
Blunt Requests Nixon Provide Facts behind Second Injury Fund Trouble
JEFFERSON CITY– Gov. Matt Blunt today requested that Attorney General Jay Nixon provide relevant information about the explosive growth of the Second Injury Fund. Mr. Nixon has served as the Fund's lawyer for 15 years, during which time expenditures have increased from $7.4 million in 1993 to $63.8 million in 2006.
"You, as the lawyer for the Second Injury Fund, are uniquely positioned to shed light on the explosive growth in payouts from the Fund since you took office," Blunt wrote in a letter delivered today. "I will consider the information you provide along with the actuarial study I requested and the recent work of the Interim House Committee on the Second Injury Fund chaired by Representative Steve Hunter."
The governor noted that trouble with the Second Injury Fund goes beyond recent court decisions. Much of the information about the Fund and related expenditures is available through Mr. Nixon's office. Blunt asked Nixon to provide records of all of the trial attorneys and their firms who have received settlements from the fund since Mr. Nixon has represented the fund and a list of the cases that Mr. Nixon has not been able to settle and that have gone to contested litigation.
The governor will use the data to consider how best to protect Missouri workers and employers by ensuring the Fund's solvency as well as to weigh whether a special session on the issue is appropriate. He requested Nixon provide the data by August 1st.
The Second Injury Fund compensates injured employees when a current work-related injury combines with a prior disability to create an increased combined disability. Early this year, the governor ordered an independent actuarial study to be completed by August 1, to determine why the fund has been on the path to bankruptcy.