Insurance Department Measure Passes Senate

The Senate approved legislation Tuesday that would save the state millions of dollars each year. Senate Bill 1658, by Sen. David Myers, would make the State Insurance Department a non-appropriated agency.

“This is a commonsense and financially-responsible bill especially during the hard economic times we’re facing. The Insurance Department is a self-sufficient agency that gets a majority of its funding from fees,” said Myers, R-Ponca City. “Currently, the state only appropriates around $3 million to this agency each year, which they say they don’t need anymore thanks to new technology and other efficient practices that they have recently implemented.”

There are only 78 appropriated state agencies in Oklahoma, but numerous non-appropriated entities including the State Banking Department, the State Securities Commission, and the Wildlife Department.

“We have many other state entities that are non-appropriated and they continue to provide top notch services to our state. Some confusion was raised on the floor, but the legislature would still have oversight over the Insurance Department being that we must approve their rules regarding increases to fees and other aspects of their work,” said Myers. “We must be efficient with state dollars. We shouldn’t continue supporting agencies that are self-sufficient. That just doesn’t make good financial sense. We have an opportunity to save the state nearly $3 million a year and we need to take advantage of it.”

SB 1658, which was requested by the Insurance Department, will next be considered in House committee.