By Marshall Griffin, KWMU
Jefferson City, MO – Missouri Governor Matt Blunt and other Republican leaders are accusing Attorney General and Democratic candidate for Governor Jay Nixon of withholding information on the state's Second Injury Fund from lawmakers.
The Second Injury Fund is used to pay already-injured workers who return to the workforce and are injured again.
Two separate studies have concluded that the fund will become insolvent within 12 to 18 months.
Governor Blunt and other G.O.P. leaders want Nixon to provide more details into who's responsible for deciding who receives money from the fund.
"Under the direction of the Attorney General, expenditures from the fund have increased dramatically...in fact, since 1993; they've increased by 586 percent," Blunt said.
Scott Holste, spokesman for the Attorney General, says his office has been very cooperative with lawmakers.
"The Attorney General's office has provided a ton of information to the Legislative Oversight Division; we've testified at hearings twice, we worked with PricewaterhouseCoopers on the independent report that was generated last summer that looked at the Second Injury Fund," Holste said.
Holste also accused Governor Blunt and Republican leaders of trying to use the issue of the fund's looming insolvency to score political points.