Guinn's plan to convert state's workers comp goes to Senate

CARSON CITY -- Gov. Kenny Guinn's plan to convert the state's workers compensation system into a private company today was sent to the floor of the Senate without recommendation by the Senate Committee on Commerce and Labor.

The committee initially defeated the privatization plan by a vote of 4 to 3.

But minutes later the panel voted 6-1, with Maggie Carlton, D-North Las Vegas, the lone dissenter, to pass it out of committee without recommendation.

Competition from private companies arrives in July in writing policies to cover workers injured on the job.

Employers Insurance has estimated it will lose anywhere from 50 to 60 percent of its business and may have lay off up to 600 of its 900 employees.

Unions opposed Guinn's plan to convert it to a private company.

Lenard Ormsby, counsel for Employers Insurance, urged the committee to pass the Guinn plan, saying it would permit the company to better compete with other private insurers.

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