Workforce Safety & Insurance seeks $8.6 million in one-time funding for IT and facilities, highlights $2.2 billion in assets and large reserves

Art Thompson, director of North Dakota Workforce Safety and Insurance (WSI), told the Education and Environment Appropriations subcommittee that WSI's base-level biennial appropriation is roughly $72 million and that the agency is requesting $8.6 million in one-time funding to complete IT modernization and facility repairs as part of House Bill 1021 (WSI appropriations).

Thompson said WSI receives no general fund dollars: "WSI is an exclusive employer financed no fault insurance state fund covering workplace injuries and deaths. We receive no general fund dollars. All of the money that we use for operating comes from premiums paid by North Dakota businesses." He told the committee WSI had net earned premiums of about $181 million last fiscal year, a covered workforce of roughly 412,000 workers and assets of about $2.2 billion.

The agency requested one-time amounts of $5.2 million to continue building the claims and policy system (custom-built due to WSI's monopolistic structure), about $1.4 million for the next phase of the myWSI online portal for employers and injured workers, and $2.0 million for facility updates (roof, carpet, ADA bathroom upgrades and exterior brick work). Thompson said the claims/policy work is on schedule to be completed with the caps and policies system by February 2030 and the myWSI portal by the end of 2027.

Thompson described WSI's financial reserves and the rationale for holding a sizable fund balance: reserves are "approximately $1,000,000,000" and are needed because WSI pays accepted claims for life, including catastrophic claims; the single largest reserved claim listed in testimony was $28 million, and about 30 claims had reserves over $5 million. He said that when reserves exceed statutory thresholds the fund issues dividends back to employers and that North Dakota has returned roughly $1.8 billion to employers in dividends over the past 19 years.

Industry representatives voiced support: Russ Hanson of the Associated General Contractors said his organization "are supportive of the agency and what they do," and Eric Spencer, president and CEO of the Greater North Dakota Chamber, urged a "due pass" on the WSI budget and 1-time funding requests.

Committee members asked questions about staffing (WSI has FTE authority for 260 and is staffed at 245, plus 4.4 temporary employees), claim counts (roughly 17,000 claims last fiscal year), investment policy (funds are managed through the Retirement Investment Office and State Investment Board; roughly 70% of investments are in bonds), and the potential fiscal impact of pending bills that would increase benefit payouts; Thompson said staff expects to absorb those increases without material budget impact.

No committee vote was recorded during the hearing; Senator Connolly was identified by the chair as likely to carry the budget on the floor.

Ending: WSI presented financial data, IT modernization timelines and facility funding requests and received public support from construction and business groups; the committee requested staff follow-up but did not act on the appropriation during this hearing.