Louisiana ORM Liabilities Almost $1Billion

The Times reports that Louisiana will have $88 million in claims in the coming fiscal year for wrecks on its highways and no money to pay them. Further, the state has had court judgments and claims against it annually the past several years and has not satisfied them.

An actuary hired to look at the Office of Risk Management, the state's self-insurance program, said, "It should be noted that ORM's financial package indicates that cash assets are approximately $20 million and that total liabilities (were) approximately $1 billion as of June 30, 2002." "If we were a private insurance company, they would have shut us down a long time ago," said J.L. "Bud" Thompson, state risk manager.

Posted by AJR at February 12, 2003 07:33 AM