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We
noted
after the death of the late Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone that this
famous champion of the little guy, scourge of corporate interests,
illegally failed to procure workers' compensation insurance for his
campaign's employees. The four employees who perished in the airplane
crash along with Wellstone and his wife were therefore uninsured.
The Wellstone campaign subsequently reached a
"settlement" with the
Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, whereby the campaign agreed
to pay $400,000 and the remaining amount due -- estimated at around
$600,000 -- was to be picked up by the taxpayers, courtesy of a fund
for employees whose employers break the law by failing to obtain the
required coverage or to properly self-insure.
Minnesota Senate candidate Al Franken is a guy who casts
himself as
being in the Wellstone mold, and he may be, at least in this one
respect. It now turns out that Franken owes a $25,000 penalty to the
New York State Workers' Compensation Board for failing to carry
workers' compensation insurance for employees of his namesake
corporation (Alan Franken Inc.) from 2002 to 2005. According to the Minneapolis
Star Tribune,
New York officials have made numerous attempts to contact Franken about
the matter since April 2005 but have gotten no reply.
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