Legislative Summertime

Oklahoma and Louisiana lawmakers wrapped up their regular legislative sessions in June, with legislators in each state dealing with insurance issues in distinctive ways.

As Tiffany O’Shea, Public Affairs director, Southwest Region, for the American Insurance Association, points out in our “Parting Shots” column, Oklahoma’s session was marked by the virtual absence of the Oklahoma Insurance Department as a result of the ongoing legislative impeachment investigation of Insurance Commissioner Carroll Fisher. O’Shea said that although lawmakers failed to adequately address tort and workers’ compensation reform issues, they did pass some significant regulatory reforms. Check out O’Shea’s assessment of the Oklahoma session on page 110.

The Louisiana Legislature continued full speed ahead with its efforts to reform insurance regulation in that state. Lawmakers approved House Bill 1514, which provides for a file-and-use rating system or a flex band system for commercial insurance policies, depending on premium amounts of particular polices. And they turned their backs on efforts to do away with the flex band model for personal policies that emerged from last year’s session. Find out about more Louisiana’s legislative action on page 8 of this issue of Insurance Journal.

The Texas Legislature is not in currently in session, although one never knows these days—by the time you read this legislators may have congregated in Austin again to have another go at school finance reform. Even Texas State Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, joked in her keynote speech at the Wade Spilman Political Action Luncheon during the Independent Insurance Agents of Texas recent convention in Dallas that she could never tell whether they were actually in session or not. But lawmakers, especially Shapiro, are plenty busy working on the school finance reform. Although Gov. Rick Perry has directed lawmakers to work out a consensus on school finance and reform, Shapiro said during her speech that a compromise is more likely.

Read more about Shapiro’s remarks on the school finance issue, as well as all the honors and awards bestowed at the IIAT’s 107th annual convention on page 17.

Impossible to miss in our national section is the 2004 National Directory of Excess, Surplus and Specialty Markets, Volume 2, which begins on page N14. So many agents have expressed their appreciation for these directories—we publish two excess and surplus directories each year—that I envision coveted, well-worn, dog-eared copies of these issues gracing the tops of agents’ desks across the U.S. Hopefully you will find this resource invaluable as well.

See you next time for the Contactor’s issue. Until then, happy reading!