Committee hears bill to exempt public risk-pool rate formulas and actuarial reports from Public Records Act

Senate Bill 5,102 would exempt from disclosure the formulas, data and actuarial analyses that public risk pools use to calculate member contributions and assessments under the Public Records Act, a committee staff member told the House State Government & Tribal Relations Committee.

The bill matters because public risk pools — joint organizations that let local governments, affordable housing entities and public hospitals share portions of claims and buy excess insurance collectively — rely on internally developed formulas and actuarial models to set rates, proponents said.

Desiree Almeida, OPR staff, summarized the measure for the committee: "Senate Bill 5,102 relates to joint self insurance programs, also known as risk pools." She told lawmakers the exemption would cover the formula and data pools use to calculate rates and the actuarial analyses and reports prepared by or for risk pools.

Sen. Bob Hasegawa, the bill's prime sponsor, said Washington's school risk pool has developed proprietary algorithms that result in lower costs for member school districts and that private insurers and brokers have used public-record requests to try to obtain that work. "This is just to make sure that public property is protected, for the benefit of the public," Hasegawa said, adding the exemption is consistent with other proprietary exemptions in the Public Records Act and that the Sunshine Committee had no objections.

Tina Eck, general counsel for the Washington Schools Risk Management Pool, told the committee the request came from the pool and that the exemption is narrow. "We are asking for a very narrow exemption to the Public Records Act," she said. Eck described the pool as an interlocal governmental risk pool run by public employees and school district board members, and said requests from private insurers and brokers for internal rate-setting projections would disadvantage the public pool.

Roland Thompson, testifying on behalf of Allied Daily Newspapers and the Washington State Association of Broadcasters, described the information as effectively proprietary and said the exemption would prevent private gain at public expense.

Committee members did not take a vote during the hearing. No formal amendments or changes to the bill were recorded in the committee transcript.

Clarifying details raised during testimony included that risk pools fund operations and claims through annual assessments apportioned by an actuary; that pools provide services to members such as legal consultation and risk-management assistance; and that the exemption as described would not prohibit disclosure of basic factual information about member districts, only internal modeling and methodology used to set rates.

Supporters asked the committee to advance the bill; no formal opposition was recorded during the hearing. The bill remains in committee for further consideration and any subsequent amendment or fiscal analysis.