ANNAPOLIS -- The Maryland Workers Compensation Commission is facing a fiscal crunch so severe that it may shut down the agency by this spring, commission Chairman Charles Krysiak warned legislators yesterday.
Speaking before a subcommittee of the state Senate Budget and Taxation Committee, Mr. Krysiak warned he won't be able to ensure payments to injured workers if the state doesn't restore 12 computer-related jobs scheduled to be phased out by the end of the fiscal year in June.
"If we don't get some relief soon, we could literally close the agency," Mr. Krysiak said.
He said the commission needs to keep and beef up the staff that runs the computer system that stores all the medical and legal records for injured workers.
If the current computer workers aren't assured they will be able to keep their state jobs, they will start quitting for other jobs, he said, leaving no one to run the computers.
The problem started last year, he said, when the legislature told him to privatize the computer operations and gave him a prod by making sure the 12 existing computer-related jobs would disappear by this June.
But there was only one serious reply to the commission's request for bids, Mr. Krysiak said, and it was for about $500,000 more than Mr. Krysiak thought it would cost for state workers to do the jobs.
Mr. Krysiak said he thought the state could solve the computer problems with about 24 computer technicians and programmers -- twice as many as the agency has authorized now -- for about $1 million a year. The commission currently spends about $500,000 a year for the 12 computer specialists on staff. The commission has a total of 118 employees.
Mr. Krysiak said he did not think the budget increase should be a political problem because it would not require a broad-based tax increase. The commission's $17.5 million annual budget is funded by a levy on workers compensation insurers, who pay about 40 cents for every $1,000 in insured payrolls.
While some legislators said that the increase may not be as simple as Mr. Krysiak would like, most seemed to take the warning seriously.
"This is a serious problem," said Sen. Donald F. Munson, a Republican from Washington County.
One former General Assembly member who was involved in last year's decision to eliminate the 12 positions said lawmakers had no intention of creating a crisis.
While eliminating the jobs, the legislature left in the money and expected the funds to be used to pay a subcontractor, he said.
"There was a high turnover rate associated with those positions" because of the comparatively low pay, explained Timothy Maloney, a Prince George's Democrat who did not run for re-election to the House of Delegates last year. "There is no reason that function could not be privatized then or now. . . . Tons of other state agencies subcontract computer services out," he said.