The Oklahoma Insurance Department has asked the state legislature to stop providing it with appropriated funds.
Insurance commissioner John Doak wrote to governor Mary Fallin on 14 March to make the request as the state faces a $1.3 billion budget shortfall.
As a recipient of appropriated funds, the Oklahoma Insurance Department does not keep the fees it collects. Instead, the department is awarded funding every year and returns fees to the state.
Doak wants the Oklahoma Insurance Department to be in charge of making its own cuts as the state looks to balance the budget.
Since January 2011, when Doak first took office, the Oklahoma Insurance Department has received just over $9 million in appropriated funds from the state, but it has paid back $28.5 million in that time.
He argued in his letter: “Going non-appropriated will allow the department to better prepare for all revenues and expenses throughout the year which, in turn, should provide more flexibility to achieve cost-cutting measures.”
Doak pointed out that his department has had to take on a number of responsibilities over the course of his tenure as commissioner, including the regulation of captive insurance companies, without the need for additional funding.
At the end of 2015, the Oklahoma Insurance Department had 73 captives to regulate, generating $391,106 in premium tax.
“We have shown a pattern of running the office like a business despite taking on more responsibilities and duties from the legislature,” Doak wrote in his letter.
“Our office continues to do more with less which is exactly what Oklahoma businesses have to during this difficult economic downturn. Cutting expenses while shoring up revenues is a common practice in the private sector.”
“I encourage the legislature to seriously consider taking us to a non-appropriated status and putting a monthly ceiling on our revolving account to maintain at least half of our approved budgeted amount at all times.”
