Updated @ 11:04 a.m. DENVER (AP) - Colorado lawmakers are questioning huge salaries and bonuses paid to executives of the state-chartered workers' compensation insurer Pinnacol Assurance.

A state audit released Monday found the quasi-governmental agency paid more than $1.9 million in bonuses to employees from 2007 to 2009.

Lawmakers also were stunned to learn that executives set up golden parachutes that require the company to pay them up to $4.3 million if lawmakers change the way the company is run, including guaranteed salaries, bonuses and benefits.

The state established what eventually became known as Pinnacol Assurance to provide workers compensation insurance to any company that needs it. It doesn't pay any state or federal taxes.
(COPYRIGHT 2010 BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)
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DENVER (AP) - Officials from the state-chartered workers' compensation insurer Pinnacol Assurance have some explaining to do.

The Legislative Audit Committee is meeting Monday to go over the company's financial performance and lawmakers want to ask CEO Ken Ross about a golf trip to Pebble Beach, Calif., that was intended to reward top-producing agents.

Company officials insist the trips were justified.

The state established what eventually became known as Pinnacol Assurance to provide workers compensation insurance to any company that needs it. It qualifies for a series of tax breaks as a quasi-public entity.
(COPYRIGHT 2010 BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)