The New York Workers' Compensation Board hopes to put a systemin place within the next two years to give financial strengthratings for the 80 self-insurance trusts it oversees, a boardofficial said.

Its effort comes as 30 of the trusts have been placed in anunder-funded category, and 12 of them have needed to charge theirmembers a special assessment to make up shortfalls revealed byaudits.

Mary Beth Woods, the board's director of licensing, said theletter-graded rating system would be used to reveal the strength ofa fund that is classified as under-funded.

The classification at this point reveals little. "Under-funded?Does that mean you're 89 percent or 20 percent funded?" said Ms.Woods. She added that grading would also provide a historicalperspective, such as, "did they move from a 'B' to 'C'?"

She said the board has been meeting with the funds to come upwith a standard reporting method for their finances, and "once weidentify a standard reporting component, then we will lock down onrankings. It's a good year or two off."

Ms. Woods said funds have agreed on a standard method ofactuarial reporting, and discussions are now dealing with financialareas such as what constitutes an allowable investment.

"The vast bulk of them are government-backed securities underour current requirements, but [the funds] want us to be a littlemore lenient," she explained.

According to Ms. Woods, the names of the 12 funds makingassessments cannot be revealed because the information isproprietary. However, WorkCompCentral reported the names of twofunds==one with deficits, respectively, of $2.8 million and $15.3million.

According to Ms. Woods, most of the funds institutingassessments did so voluntarily, and there are "only a handful thatwe have mandated."