At IIAT’s Small Agency Conference, lawmaker says involvement is key to legislative success

Sen. Staples Urges Agents to Continue Participating in the ‘Process’

Nearly 250 attendees turned out for the Independent Insurance Agents of Texas’ first-ever Small Agency Conference, held in Waco in mid-October.

Participants from all over Texas-some 60 counties in the state were represented-seemed to appreciate that the event was geared toward the smaller agency. “The success of this conference was apparent from the outset. Both the trade show featuring companies and MGAs, and the sessions exceeded all expectations,” said Robert Hempkins, IIAT president-elect. “Many attendees told me how much they appreciated the small agency slant and how valuable they found the Meet With Markets trade show.”

Hempkins hosted the Oct. 17 luncheon, which featured keynote speaker State Sen. Todd Staples, R-Palestine.

Asked to give an “insider’s perspective on the workings of the Texas Legislature,” Staples said legislative success is all about getting involved and staying involved in the process. “There are about 6,000 bills that are introduced [every session],” Staples said. “Of those 6,000, about 1,000 or 1,200 or so eventually become law. And it comes about through a strange set of circumstances because of all the different interests that are represented in the process.”

He added that the media made it appear as though “after a long, long year in Austin,” the legislature “had nothing to show for it. But in reality there were quite a few things that we did get accomplished,” such as the workers’ compensation bill and the uninsured motorist bill. Staples acknowledged IIAT’s participation in getting the uninsured motorist bill passed and its interest in making sure the bill gets implemented in the right way.

As for workers’ compensation, Staples said the legislature wanted to make sure at the outset that they did not make a bad situation worse. “In the legislature you absolutely can make things worse if you’re not careful so we tried get all the stakeholders’ input on the process,” he said. “And we tried to keep the process from shifting too far to either the injured workers, or the employer, or the providers-the different stakeholders involved and engaged in workers’ compensation.”

Staples noted that at one point “there was a great probability that we would have no workers’ compensation reform at all late in the session for a lot of different reasons. Some stakeholders wanted more. “It’s the old adage of pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered,” he continued. “Sometimes you can ask for so much that you start looking to be pretty good on the dinner plate. And we had that occurring in the process. And we had differences in philosophy [as to] what the workers’ compensation system should look like between the House sponsor and the Senate sponsor.”

He credited IIAT and other interested groups with keeping the pressure on the legislature to work through the differences and make “good, solid decisions. And I want to thank you for coming and staying engaged in the process. There are so many people out there who truly believe in their position and, believe me ladies and gentlemen, they are not bashful about telling you their opinions. They work it, they manipulate it, and they continue to stay engaged in the process. And if you didn’t do the same thing, if you ever get to the point where you decide-‘you know, I’m getting a little bit tired of this, I’m tired of looking at this legislation, I’m tired of giving to my organization so we can have an effective
representation in Austin’-I’m telling you, today there are many, many other people who are waiting in line to be able to push the

agenda their direction. Without your
input, we wouldn’t have something we can necessarily be proud of in this state. It is that difficult.”

Staples acknowledged the “big issue of why we were there all summer-reforming our tax structure and restructuring the way we reform public schools, obviously ended up without a conclusion.” Noting that the legislature “successfully discovered hundreds of ways not to solve school finance,” he reminded the agents that then-Gov. George W. Bush and Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock were unsuccessful in 1997, even with a budget surplus of around $6 billion and no immediate funding crisis, in restructuring the way public schools are funded and giving relief to property taxpayers.

“The reality is we did not arrive in the situation we are in overnight,” Staples said, adding that we’re not going to be able to fix the problem overnight. He said after “working on this issue many more hours than I ever planned,” he has concluded that “the way out of this is the way we got into it. Over a period of time dedicating our tax revenue surpluses to property tax relief. Changing our tax structure in a way where we’re not as reliant on property taxes and doing it through the growth of our economy and not becoming punitive to any one sector.”

An annual event

In addition to the keynote speech by Sen. Staples, the premiere Small Agency Conference included a combination trade show, as well as numerous sales and technical sessions oriented toward the small agency. The Meet With Markets trade show featured 27 exhibitors, with 13 offering direct appointments and 14 representing MGAs targeting small agencies. Event sponsors included Travelers, The Republic Group, Service Lloyds Insurance Co., Insurors Indemnity and Beacon Insurance Group.

“IIAT has already begun laying the groundwork for the second such conference and it looks like this will become an annual event,” IIAT’s Hempkins said.

Topics Texas Legislation Workers' Compensation Training Development