OIR needs more money to cover insurance commissioner’s salary

By Christine Sexton

TALLAHASSEE — Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater is asking the Florida Legislature to put some money where its mouth is.

Atwater and Gov. Rick Scott on April 29 agreed that David Altmaier should replace longtime insurance commissioner Kevin McCarty, who resigned at Scott’s urging. The full Cabinet agreed to pay Altmaier $165,000, about $31,000 more than what McCarty earned.

According to the Department of Financial Services legislative budget request, the Office of Insurance Regulation has not been given the additional funding needed to pay Altmaier the agreed-to salary. It asks for an additional $30,843 in rate and $35,521 in salaries and benefits to cover the increase.

An OIR spokeswoman told POLITICO Florida that Altmaier is being paid at the higher salary.

“He’s been paid that salary, that’s all I can confirm,” said the spokeswoman, Karen Kees. Altmaier made a presentation before the Cabinet this summer discussing the OIR’s budget needs. He requested another $1.528 million in salary, telling the Cabinet that it was to increase salaries at the agency. (He didn’t mention his own salary.)

The OIR is administratively housed in the Department of Financial Services, which Atwater oversees. The office receives no general revenue — its funding comes from the insurance regulatory trust fund, comprised of fees, taxes and assessments paid by insurance companies. The OIR’s budget is set annually by the Florida Legislature in the general appropriations act.

Altmaier may have a rough time getting the increase from the Florida Senate. Senate President Pro Tempore Anitere Flores recently blasted Altmaier for approving an overall statewide rate increase of 6.4 percent in rates for homeowners carrying Citizens insurance policies without ever holding a meeting on the proposed rate increases in South Florida.

During her campaign for re-election, Flores said she wants the state insurance commissioner to be an elected position and not a political appointment. She told POLITICO Florida that she is working on a bill in the Legislature do do just that.

She said there is a “unique opportunity” to have the Constitutional Revision Commission “to take a look ” at the idea.

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