Coates v. Doak Dust Up Continues

As part of our continuing coverage of potential 2014 primaries, we found this email post by OCPAC’s Charlie Meadows to be most interesting. State Senator Harry Coates has been questioning Commissioner John Doak’s Insurance Commission budget for the past several months. Here is what Charlie had to say about Sen. Coates comments:

++  HARRY THE TURN-COAT COATES’ WAR ON JOHN DOAK 

It has appeared to me that ever since Insurance Commissioner John Doak

upset Kim Holland, the Democrat darling of the Oklahoman and the Tulsa

World, they have taken every opportunity possible to take a swipe at

Insurance Commissioner John Doak. Cast in a negative light, there have

been recent stories which had a critical tone toward Commissioner Doak

for his purchase of law enforcement type vehicles for his fraud

investigators as well as equipping them with firearms and law

enforcement equipment. In addition, Doak has been criticized for

providing T-Shirts for his, on site, disaster team members along with

providing motivational materials and recognition awards for all agency

employees.

 

Well, the law-enforcement equipment and vehicles set old Harry the

“turn-coat” Coates galloping into action with what appears to be a

vendetta, by authoring legislation this year to punish Commissioner

Doak. Besides the nick name of “turn-coat” Coates, Harry has won

OCPAC’s Senate RINO award 3 times and has been runner-up on two other

occasions. It is not unusual for several Democrats to have a higher

score each year than old Harry on the Oklahoma Constitution

Newspaper’s Conservative Index.

 

Following is an editorial about Harry from the Tulsa Beacon a few

weeks back titled: “Coates: a tempest in a teapot”

 

“Sen. Harry Coates is on the rampage again. Coates is the most out-of-

step senator in the Republican Caucus in the state. In fact, he has

earned the nickname, Harry ’Turn’ Coate, because of his repeated

departures from the GOP platform and his allegiance to liberal

policies.

 

His latest target is Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner John Doak. Coates

wants to deny Doak and all other agency heads the chance to use state

airplanes to travel on state business.

 

Coates apparently expects Doak and other officials to drive to Hugo,

Miami, Beaver and Altus because driving such long distances would be

’more efficient.’

 

Incredible as it sounds, Coates wants only the governor and lieutenant

governor to have access to the six or seven state planes. Officials

should not use these planes for personal benefit or for political

campaigns but it is ridiculous to outlaw their use for legitimate

reasons.

 

Doak is a breath of fresh air in state government. Insurance

commissioners are supposed to stay in the background, collect a pay

check and do the bidding of political overlords.

 

But Doak takes his job seriously. He has traveled to all 77 counties

to help with the aftermath of wildfires, earthquakes, floods and

drought. Doak and his staff are active in investigating fraud and they

have a dynamic program to help Oklahomans find out more about their

insurance-especially Medicaid and Medicare for seniors.

 

Who knows if Coates is jealous or if Doak is getting close to some

sacred cow in the senator’s district. Coates is such a publicity hound

that he filed bills and issued press releases with-out even calling

Doak to discuss the issue.

 

In Oklahoma politics, Coates represents the old guard that favors

special interests and doesn’t rock the boat. Coates would feel more

welcome in the Democrat Party.

 

Doak represents a change for the better.”

 

Over the weeks as I was reading all the negative press about

Commissioner Doak‘s so called wild spending spree, I was fairly sure

that the monies were not tax dollars, but decided to call John to find

out for myself. He was very open and helpful to answer my questions

and even pointed me to two others on his staff to get even more

details. I actually learned a great deal about the agency and believe

it important for our readers to know what I learned.

 

As a point of interest, his staff had just presented their annual

financial and operations report to the Senate Budget Committee where

they were applauded for their report. Senator Coates failed to attend

the meeting, to be fair, he is not on the budget committee but not

being on a committee has never stopped him in the past from attending

and trying to speak at committee meetings regarding his support for

illegal aliens. I have even seen him attend house committee meetings.

If he really wanted to get the low down on Doak’s performance he

should have been present or he should have contacted him as I did.

 

The Oklahoma Insurance Department (OID) takes in the second largest

amount of dollars of any agency in the state, almost $245 million last

year. Yet, the state only appropriates about $1.5 million for its

operations. John indicates his preference would be for the state not

to appropriate any funds for his agency and when asked why the state

continued to appropriate funds to the OID, he speculated, it might be

a belief that such appropriations allow for the control over the OID.

Mr. Doak went on to tell me that in reality, the OID actually operates

at the will of the legislature, they already have control over his

agency by law.

 

So, where does all this huge sum of money come from? What I learned

was that beside regulating the insurance industry and fighting fraud,

the OID is little more than a tax generating agency for the state.

$200 million of the $245 million in revenues come from what is called

a “premium tax”. Part of the cost of every insurance policy in the

state has a hidden tax imbedded in it called a premium tax. Did you

know that every insurance policy you have has a hidden tax on it?

 

The next largest revenue source to the OID, $23.6 million dollars

comes from fees. These are fees that every insurance company and agent

in the state has to pay to be in business. The third part of the

revenues, come from what is called surplus lines, $21.9 million and

the final part comes from what is called fraud recovery, $225,000 last

year. It was from this fraud recovery fund that Commissioner Doak

purchased the law enforcement equipment last year for his fraud

agents, not tax dollars.

 

As another point of interest, the fraud department was established in

the OID by the legislature in 1989, before any of the current

lawmakers were in office. However, in 2005, the legislature passed a

bill to give the fraud department law enforcement powers. Guess who

voted to give the department law enforcement powers? None other than

good old Harry Coates, now he has also become a hypocrite. If you have

a portion of your agency with law enforcement powers, what should you

do? Equip them with the necessary tools to do their job, especially in

the light that two fraud investigators in Louisiana were killed last

year in the line of duty.

 

So where do all of these revenues go? Glad you asked, of the premium

tax which raises about $200 million, $93.2 million went to the general

fund. The firefighters pension fund received $68.2 million, the Police

pension fund received $28.1 million and the law enforcement pension

fund received 10.3 million.

 

Of the fees and surplus lines which amounted to $46 million, 76.5%

went into the general fund and 23.5% went into the OID revolving fund.

The latter is used for the actual operations of the OID.

 

In addition, revenues come from fines, penalties, late fees and

recoveries, last year that figure was about $1 million dollars. That

revenue was distributed as follows. $250,000 to the Attorney’s General

office, $250,000 to the anti-fraud revolving fund, and $485.5 thousand

to the general revenue fund.

 

Each year, the legislature looks at the money in the OID’s revolving

fund and comes in and sweeps out any excess it deems are available,

usually between $4 to $6 million each year. Do you now understand why

I suggest that the OID is little more than a revenue raising entity

for the state of Oklahoma which serves at the whims of the

legislature?

 

I see nothing wrong with fraud recovery funds being used to equip the

fraud department investigators. I believe it is smart use of the money

in that manner. I wonder what old Harry would rather use the money

for? Perhaps more GLBTG seminars taught at the state health department

and paid for by tax payer dollars? Perhaps Coates wants that money to

be used for the prisoner currently suing the state of Oklahoma to

provide tax payer dollars so he can have a sex change operation and

counseling now that he supposedly is no longer interested in raping

little girls which is why he is in prison at this time?

 

I have no problem with using a small pittance of these funds collected

by the OID to provide matching T-shirts so the OID employees can be

easily recognized at and around a mobile command tent they set up in a

disaster area so the public can easily recognize OID employees to get

help in their time of need. Their presence also discourages crooks

from ripping off these same victims

 

Now what about things like motivational books and materials for the

employees as well as recognition awards? One question to ask is, have

these little things helped to motivate the employees to better

productivity and raised morale. I might be concerned if these expenses

came from tax dollars, but it isn’t as important if they come from

recovery monies or fees. I was told that morale is high at the OID. If

you struggle with this, just look at some of the companies like

Chesapeake, Devon and others that have high marks from their

employees. That is always the result of a company investing itself

into the well being of their employees and the perception that a

company cares enough about them to go an extra mile with them.

 

Bottom line, Senator Coates “IS” a tempest in a tea pot and the good

news is, he only has 2 more years before he is term-limited out of

office. It would be a shame if the legislature passed legislation to

adversely affect the operations of the OID, especially given their

aggressive efforts to do their job as described by existing law.