Brief⁽¹⁾

S.B. 426 amends current law regarding salaries of employees of the Insurance Department. The current law prohibits Insurance Department appointees from earning more than the Insurance Commissioner. S.B. 426 removes this salary restriction on employees appointed by the Commissioner.

Background

The bill was introduced at the request of the Insurance Department. The Insurance Commissioner's salary is set by statute at $66,407. A representative of the agency testified that the current prohibition makes it difficult to retain professional staff; leads to salary compression within the agency; and makes it impossible to hire some professionals, such as actuaries, who command greater salaries in the private sector.

The Senate Committee of the Whole amended the bill to specify that the Insurance Commissioner could have no more than two actuaries.

There were no opponents to the bill.

The fiscal note prepared by the Division of the Budget states the bill would have no direct fiscal impact.

1. *Supplemental notes are prepared by the Legislative Research Department and do not express legislative intent. The supplemental note and fiscal note for this bill may be accessed on the Internet at http://www.ink.org/public/legislative/fulltext-bill.html.