Kansas Insurance Commissioner outlines fee cuts, consumer recoveries during budget review

Commissioner Vicki Schmidt and department staff summarized the Kansas Department of Insurance budget and several policy items to the Committee on General Government Budget, stressing the department is fee-funded and describing recent and proposed reductions to licensing and other fees.

The department’s budget presentation, delivered by Arianna Waddell of the Legislative Research Department and comptroller Charlotte Dawbert, showed the agency’s FY2025 revised estimate at about $44,000,000, all from special revenue funds, and 135 FTE positions. Waddell told the committee the FY2025 revised request is an increase of about $3.9 million (9.8 percent) over the FY2024 legislatively approved amount, driven largely by increased distributions from the State Firefighters Relief Fund and higher contractual spending related to building rent and consulting services.

Why it matters: the department is 100 percent fee-funded in the presented budgets, and the commissioner and staff said past and proposed legislative reductions to fees have substantially reduced department revenue while the agency continues…