State Agencies Labor Over Workers’ Comp Payment Treasurer Seeks Court Order For $25 Million Deposit

State Treasurer Lydia Justice Edwards wants state workers’ compensation officials to make a more than $25 million deposit with her office, but the State Insurance Fund is trying to work out the dispute.

Edwards has asked the Idaho Supreme Court to order the Insurance Fund to make the payment, citing a state law that requires all workers’ compensation insurers - private and public - to post a deposit or bond with the treasurer equal to the amount of money that has been awarded to injured workers.

The deposit is intended to guarantee that the awards will be paid.

As of last June, outstanding and unpaid workers’ compensation awards against the Insurance Fund amounted to almost $25.4 million, Edwards said.

But Deputy Attorney General David High said another law makes the state public school endowment fund the custodian of all Insurance Fund assets.

“The question is, at least in our view, which statute controls,” said High, who represents the Insurance Fund.

What’s more, he said, the Insurance Fund is required to deposit far more in the endowment fund - about $150 million - than it would to the treasurer’s office. The endowment fund deposit is based on the amount required to cover all workers’ compensation judgments already entered, as well as claims in the pipeline and those that the agency might reasonably anticipate.

High said legislation has been drafted to clear up the dispute by exempting the Insurance Fund from the treasurer’s deposit requirement.

“We think when we have two state agencies that are fighting about the meaning of statutes, it makes more sense to just go to the Legislature with how they want it to work,” he said. “From our point of view it doesn’t matter which way it comes out. It’s just who’s going to be holding these funds. Either way, people are secure.”

But Edwards definitely wants the job.

“There is sound public policy behind requiring the deposit to be placed out of reach of the State Insurance Fund and in the hands of a disinterested trustee who will ensure the proper protection and application” of the money, the treasurer said in her Supreme Court petition.