Presumptive Disease Study for Law Enforcement Officers

In Washington, certain illnesses and medical conditions are presumed to be duty-related for fire fighters. There is currently no presumption for law enforcement officers.

At their meeting on November 28, 2007, the Law Enforcement Officers’ and Fire Fighters’ Plan 2 (LEOFF 2) Retirement Board unanimously approved a formal request to the Legislature for a presumptive disease study by the Department of Labor and Industries (L & I) that will be specific to law enforcement officers.

The requested study would look at all of the current presumptions for fire fighters (infectious diseases, respiratory and heart conditions.) A similar L & I study, completed in 1992, led to the initial fire fighter presumptions.

Family Leave Insurance Task Force Update

As reported in the November Bulletin, the final meeting of the Joint Task Force on Family Leave Insurance will be held on December 13, 2007. It is expected that the task force will adopt its final recommendations at that time and forward them on to the Legislature for action during the 2008 legislative session.

In previous meetings, the tax force reviewed various options for funding the new insurance program, which will provide new parents $250 a week for up to five weeks while they take time off from work, starting in October of 2009. We believe they will recommend allocating state general fund revenues to cover initial start-up and program costs.

We will report on the specific recommendations of the task force in the next issue of the Legislative Bulletin.

Study of LEOFF 1 Retiree Medical Costs

At the December 18, 2007 meeting of the Select Committee on Pension Policy, the State Actuary’s Office will present the results of their recent study on LEOFF 1 retiree medical costs, which was authorized by the Legislature earlier this year. The study will estimate the statewide liability to local governments for LEOFF 1 medical and long-term care costs. We expect the study will be available on the Actuary’s website at http://osa.leg.wa.gov after the 18th. The tool that the Actuary’s Office is developing to help smaller local governments identify their specific liability should be available in early 2008.

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