NH Insurance Commissioner details $15.5M budget, $2.6M industry credit and proposes homeowner resiliency grants

D.J. Betancourt, commissioner of the New Hampshire Insurance Department, told the House Finance, Division I panel that the department’s total budget request is about $15,500,000 and that the agency is entirely self‑funded by an assessment on insurance companies doing business in New Hampshire.

Betancourt said the state’s assessed funding is calculated as a pro rata share of premium written in New Hampshire and that ‘‘the total amount of premiums written’’ in the state is ‘‘over $8,000,000,000.’’ He told members that because New Hampshire represents a very small share of the national market the department seeks to work collaboratively with industry.

Why it matters: the funding and staffing choices the department makes affect both regulator capacity and the size of the annual assessment charged to insurers; Betancourt said careful budgeting produced a one‑time credit to carriers and also informed several staffing decisions.

Key budget details and vacancy practice

Betancourt said the department has 88 authorized positions and currently 8 vacancies. He told the committee that, following a request from the governor to present a budget reflecting a 4% reduction in expenditures, the department ‘‘unfunded 3 full time positions’’ (positions remain authorized but without funding). He also described last…