Stimulus Bill Gives A Break On Workers' Comp To Boat Builders

WASHINGTON--Two Florida members of Congress won a provision in the stimulus bill signed by President Obama this week that will reduce the cost of workers' compensation insurance for boatyards that service large yachts.

The provision in the stimulus bill, H.R. 1, modifies a law related to dockyard workers passed in 1927, more than 85 years ago.

As a result of the provision, firms repairing or servicing recreational boats can now carry much cheaper state workers' comp insurance, according to Kristina Herbert, past president of the Marine Industries Association of South Florida.

She said the provision will "drastically" cut premiums for firms involved in this business.

The industry accounts for 162,000 jobs and $13.6 billion in annual economic impact for South Florida, she said.

The original provision required companies that serviced recreational boats 65 feet or longer to meet costlier insurance requirements for injured workers as specified in the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act.

The South Florida-based trade group and others have been working for eight years to change the provision, she said in a statement.

Jonathan Beeton, a spokesman for Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, D-Fla., and Ron Klein, D-Fla., who represent neighboring districts in Palm Beach County, said there will be no cost to the government for the provision.

He said Rep. Wasserman-Schultz and Rep. Klein had originally included the provision in the 2007 Coast Guard Authorization Act, which sought to provide added power to the Coast Guard to enforce marine laws. But the provision failed to win support in the Senate because of opposition from the Bush administration.

Both Herbert and J.J. McConnell, MIASF's current president, said the impact of the law change will be "significant."

Under the law that was modified employers with drydocks, boatyards and other facilities adjoining navigable waterways paid comp rates based on classes included in the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, which are higher than state system comp rates.