Informational hearing outlines plan to fund BOLI via Worker Benefit Fund assessments

At an informational hearing Feb. 2, 2025, Representative Mari Watanabe and agency officials described House Bill 4,027 (dash‑1), which would use the Department of Consumer and Business Services' Worker Benefit Fund (WBF) infrastructure to create a separate fund to support the Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI).

Watanabe said the proposal was the product of a bipartisan, bicameral work group and is intended to replace temporary General Fund and one‑time WBF allocations with a stable, ongoing revenue source. She described initial estimates: an assessment equivalent to two‑tenths of a penny per work hour (roughly $2.08 per employee per year on a 40‑hour, 52‑week assumption) would generate approximately $8.5 million in the first biennium and $19 million in the following biennium.

Matt West, Administrator of the Workers' Compensation Division, and Sean O'Day, Director of DCBS, explained WBF history and the mechanics of rate setting, including statutory fund‑balance requirements and sensitivity to employment forecasts. They emphasized safeguards in the draft that would keep workers' compensation benefits separate and create a distinct BOLI expenses account with its own assessment calculations.

Josh Nasby (BOLI) said the phased plan would convert temporarily funded positions (50 FTEs) into permanent roles and then add a second bucket of positions phased in by July 1, 2031, with hard caps on funded positions. Nasby emphasized the need to act before temporary funding expires to avoid higher assessment rates later and to retain staff hired with one‑time funds.

The committee scheduled a more robust follow-up hearing for Wednesday to examine details, including the legal vote threshold and technical fiscal assumptions.