Declarations

Client Prep Needed

“It’s hard to ask for rate hikes if you’ve never had to do it.”

—Michael Sapnar, president and CEO of Transatlantic Holdings. Speaking at a Professional Liability Underwriting Society (PLUS) Directors & Officers Symposium in New York, Sapnar referred to the fact that due to a prolonged soft market, many brokers have never experienced a time when insurance prices were trending up rather than down. Sapnar said brokers have to prepare their clients and get risk managers to budget for increases.

No Good Answer

“Your guess is as good as mine.”

—Darlene Osterhaus, director of the train-safety organization Kansas Operation Lifesaver. Safety advocates are stumped as to why, despite efforts to educate the public through safety seminars and the addition of more gates and lights at intersections, the number of train-related accidents in Kansas has remained steady while dropping nationally. About 16 people were killed by trains in Kansas every year from 1992 to 2011 – 19 in the first 11 months of 2010 – but nationally train-related fatalities dropped from 1,170 to 644 in the same period, the Federal Railroad Administration said.

End It or Win It

“If we’re not going to end it, we need to win. … But I would much prefer not to go to war.”

—Missouri State Rep. T. J. Berry, a Kearney Republican. An apparent economic “border war” between Missouri and Kansas prompted Kearney to sponsor legislation that would prohibit the state from issuing certain economic development tax credits to attract jobs from Kansas to Missouri. To go into effect, Kansas would have to pass similar legislation within two years. If not, Missouri would commit to spending $1.50 on economic incentives for the Kansas City area for every $1 that Kansas spends. In 2009, Kansas passed a law allowing relocating companies to retain 95 percent of their employee withholding tax for up to 10 years, upping the ante in the competition for companies in the Kansas City area.

Topics Kansas Missouri