Higher Education Funding Reform And Workers Comp

“Capitol Hill Conversation” Web Extra:

For years the state legislature has been sending signals to the two higher education systems in the state – UT and the Board of Regents – that the lawmakers don’t like the current funding formula. The schools turn in their operating budget needs based on a headcount of students, square footage of classrooms, and a number of oddly-weighted factors which have been arrived at over years of negotiation. The Tennessee Higher Education Commission presides over both university systems.

In recent years, lawmakers have cut the appropriation to an amount they think the state can afford. The schools usually raise student tuition to supply the rest of the money.

Lawmakers argue that universities are getting all the money they say they need, either from the state or from the students and their families. So why does it take six years, on average, to graduate a student from a four-year program?

The lawmakers want the schools to figure in the graduation rate as a part of this funding formula. If you can’t get the students through in a reasonable period of time, you get less state money.

Workers Compensation In 2008 the General Assembly passed a law (Public Chapter 1041, a number you’ll hear quoted during the special session) that required small subcontractors on construction job sites to get Workers Compensation insurance.

Workers Comp is essentially a deal between employers and labor – if you get hurt on the job, it’s covered by insurance and you don’t have to sue. The employer pays premiums to provide the coverage. It keeps the worker from having to hire an attorney.

The law had some unintended consequences, and even the people who sponsored it (Mumpower, Ketron) are unhappy with it. All the special session is expected to do is suspend the law, which went into effect January 1, until they can get back to it later in the regular session and patch it up.

The House Consumer and Employee Affairs Committee is expected to look at the issue Tuesday morning, even before the special session starts at noon.

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