Subject of Possible Rule Making: Chapter 296-14 WAC, Industrial insurance, pension discount rates (PDR) for the state fund and self-insurance.

Statutes Authorizing the Agency to Adopt Rules on this Subject: RCW 51.04.020, 51.44.070(1), 51.44.080, chapter 282, Laws of 2018 (SB 6393).

Reasons Why Rules on this Subject may be Needed and What They Might Accomplish: PDR is the interest rate used to account for the time value of money when evaluating the present value of future pension payments. The purpose of this rule making is to lower the PDR using different assumptions for annual investment returns for the reserve funds for self-insured and state fund pension claims, and to align with recent department requested legislation passed in the 2018 session allowing for the department to use different methods of calculating state fund and self-insured liabilities when determining the annuity values of a pension based on the rates of mortality, disability, remarriage, and interest.

Process for Developing New Rule: Parties interested in these rules may contact the individual listed below. The public may also participate by commenting after amendments are proposed by providing written comments and/or testimony during the public hearing and comment process. Public hearings will be held after the proposal is filed.

Interested parties can participate in the decision to adopt the new rule and formulation of the proposed rule before publication by contacting Suzy Campbell, Legal Services, P.O. Box 44250, Olympia, WA 98504-4250, phone 360-902-5003, fax 360-902-4960, TTY 360-902-4252, email Suzanne.campbell@lni.wa.gov.