Great News
“This announcement, particularly in light of the difficult economic challenges facing the entire country, is great news for Citizens and for the insurance market in Louisiana.”
—Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon praised a rating upgrade for the Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp. Assessment Revenue Bonds by Moody’s Investors Service. Donelon says the upgrade shows “that Moody’s recognizes all of the positive strides that Citizens has made in recent years.” The rating was upgraded from Baa1 from Baa2. The outlook for the company has changed from stable to positive. The rating change affects Citizens’ $894 million of outstanding Assessment Revenue Bonds.
A Barrier to Growth
“Our expensive workers’ compensation system remains one of the barriers to economic growth in Oklahoma, and it continues to fail injured workers.”
—Oklahoma Rep. Mark McCullough, R-Sapulpa, plans to introduce legislation to improve the state’s workers’ compensation system that includes the recommendations of the Task Force on Vocational Rehabilitation in Workers’ Compensation. Recommendations include beginning vocational rehabilitation much earlier than in the current system and implementing evidence-based medical guidelines to identify injuries. McCullough said his legislation may include having a physician’s advisory council draft a set of fact-specific injuries to serve as a “trigger” for earlier vocational rehabilitation assessment.
Could Have Been Worse
“It could have been a lot worse. … BP is going to come back from this.”
—Tyler Priest, a University of Houston petroleum historian, comments on BP’s financial liabilities from last year’s Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. While costs to the company are expected to exceed $40 billion, analysts say BP will survive the worst oil spill in U.S. history for several key reasons: it has little debt; its global businesses are forecast to generate $26 billion next year in cash flow from operations; the environmental impact of the spill isn’t as bad as feared; and the government seems unlikely to ban BP from Gulf drilling. BP has cut its dividend, issued debt and sold more than $21 billion in assets.AP
Topics Workers' Compensation Louisiana
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