Part of the ongoing reason most of us are against new taxes, including those being proposed for the Parkway, it is difficult to ensure public money is well used for public purposes.
Dan Walters: State Fund scandal not alone
By Dan Walters - dwalters@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PST Wednesday, December 12, 2007
State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner issued a highly critical report Tuesday on the shoddy, perhaps even illegal, financial practices of the quasi-public State Compensation Insurance Fund, California's largest workers' compensation insurer.
Poizner's audit is official confirmation of the scandal, including self-dealing, that had already led to a shake-up of the fund's board and management and an ongoing criminal investigation.
Given the multibillion-dollar stakes in workers' compensation, the system that provides medical care and financial support for workers with job-related illnesses and injuries, the audit is an important document unto itself. As Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said, "It is outrageous that the former State Fund management would recklessly spend dollars."
There is, however, another dimension to the scandal: It's not an isolated case.
State Fund could engage in irregular financial practices for so many years because, as large as it may be, it exists in an official netherworld.
