This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

The headline in this blog underscores a solid reality – workers’ compensation rates for Oregon businesses have been doing down and will continue the downward path for next year.

The good news comes from a solid source, Salem Reporter, which is carving out for itself a positive reputation for news in and around the Salem-Keizer area. 

That’s good because of the continuing decline of the Salem Statesman-Journal.

But back to workers’ comp.

Here is a summary of the news reported by Salem Reporter:

“For the ninth year in a row, Oregon employers on average will spend less in 2022 on workers’ compensation, the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services said in a Wednesday news release.

“The agency projected that employers next year will pay 97 cents for every $100 of payroll for workers’ compensation costs on average. That’s down from the current figure of $1.02 per $100 in payroll costs.

“The trend follows a decline in frequency of lost-time claims, claim costs and medical costs.

“Oregon has been among the lowest-ranked states ‘for many years’ in workers’ compensation premium rates, the base rate by which insurers set medical costs and lost wages paid by employers, the agency said.  In 2020, the state recorded the seventh-least expansive rates in the country.”

The state agency news release didn’t report this – it probably couldn’t remember – but this good news about workers’ comp started during the Administration of former Oregon Governor Neil Goldschmidt.

Of course, he tarnished his own image by his conduct before serving as governor, but the leadership he took on workers’comp deserves to be remembered accurately.

He brought both sides – business and labor – together at the bargaining table until they agreed on a resolution.  It was one that, (a) cut business costs, which, of course, benefitted workers as well as managers, and (b) protected important medical services for workers.

It was a solid solution all around and has, for one thing, stood the test of time, illustrating that tough issues don’t have to be a win for one side and a loss for other.

I always thought the consensus represented one of the best examples in Oregon of finding what I like to call “the smart middle ground.”  I only wish there were more examples of this kind of good government today instead of what we have nationally and in Oregon, which is political antagonism and one-upsmanship.

As for the Department of Consumer and Business Services, which runs worker’ comp in Oregon, it also attributed “the continued decline in costs to state workplace safety agencies, including the Oregon’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, injured worker and small business advocacy services, and the Workers’ Compensation Board that settles disputes related to state laws for workers’ compensation and workplace safety.

Fine.  Give the state agencies credit.  Just know that, at one point in the pasts, a governor laid the groundwork for what today is a selling point for Oregon, not a debit for business, workers and the economy.