Workers’ Comp Tops Oklahoma Small-Business Agenda

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Lt. Gov. Todd Lamb and Oklahoma business leaders rolled out their legislative agenda for small businesses and manufacturers on Feb. 12, citing workforce development and sweeping changes to the state’s workers’ and unemployment compensation systems as their top priorities.

Proposals were developed during a series of summits with small-business operators across the state.

Lamb said 97.2 percent of all Oklahoma employers are small businesses.

Fred Morgan, president and CEO of the State Chamber of Oklahoma, said the summits gave business and elected leaders the opportunity to hear directly from Oklahoma business owners about their challenges. Morgan said 70 percent of his organization’s members are small-business owners.

97.2 percent of all Oklahoma employers are small businesses.

Morgan said the State Chamber’s top legislative priority this year is replacing the workers’ compensation system, which adjudicates claims in an adversarial court system, with an administrative system that supporters say would reduce costs and speed up benefits to workers who are injured on the job.

Lamb said Oklahoma’s workers’ comp system is the nation’s sixth-most expensive, but proposals to alter it have been met with resistance in past years.

“Some people just have a problem with change, because it’s change,” Lamb said.

Gov. Mary Fallin and leaders of both the House and Senate have said they support changes to the workers’ comp system, Lamb said.

Other legislative priorities include increasing efforts to build a skilled workforce for the state and creating a student safety net to encourage those who do not finish high school or college to develop a skill or learn a trade.

Morgan said there are employers in the state with unfilled jobs who cannot find skilled workers to fill them.

“It’s a growing problem. It’s a pressing problem,” he said. “What are our workforce needs in the next 20 years, and how are we going to meet those needs?”