EXECUTIVE ORDER
07-06

WHEREAS, the Missouri Department of Insurance, Financial Institutions and Professional Registration is authorized pursuant to Article IV, Section 12, of the Missouri Constitution and Chapter 374, RSMo; and

WHEREAS, the Missouri Department of Revenue is authorized pursuant to Article IV, Section 12, of the Missouri Constitution and Chapter 32, RSMo; and

WHEREAS, the collection of surplus lines insurance taxes is established in Chapter 384, RSMo, and currently is assigned to the Missouri Department of Insurance, Financial Institutions and Professional Registration; and

WHEREAS, the surplus lines insurance market provides unusual or high-risk insurance unavailable from licensed insurers; and

WHEREAS, surplus lines insurance companies doing business in Missouri pay premium taxes to the Missouri Department of Insurance, Financial Institutions and Professional Registration; and

WHEREAS, administering the premium and surplus lines tax systems is a function of the Missouri Department of Insurance, Financial Institutions and Professional Registration; and

WHEREAS, the Missouri Department of Insurance, Financial Institutions and Professional Registration currently transmits the surplus lines tax remittances received from insurance companies directly to the Missouri Department of Revenue; and

WHEREAS, the Missouri Department of Revenue is already collecting premium taxes remitted by insurance companies; and

WHEREAS, the Missouri Department of Revenue is the state's tax collection agency; and

WHEREAS, the collection of surplus lines insurance taxes would be strengthened by a move to the Missouri Department of Revenue where other state taxes are collected; and

WHEREAS, the Missouri State Government Review Commission recommended this transfer in its November 2005 Report; and

WHEREAS, the transfer of the collection of surplus lines insurance tax function would better serve Missouri's citizens by increasing efficiencies and is a component of the Governor's Executive Branch Reorganization Plan of 2007; and

WHEREAS, I am committed to integrating executive branch operations to ensure that the state delivers quality services in the most accessible manner and at the lowest cost to taxpayers.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, MATT BLUNT, GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the State of Missouri, including the Omnibus State Reorganization Act of 1974, do hereby order the Missouri Department of Insurance, Financial Institutions and Professional Registration and the Missouri Department of Revenue to cooperate to:

1. Transfer all the authority, powers, duties, functions, records, personnel, property, contracts, budgets, matters pending, and other pertinent vestiges of the function of collecting surplus lines taxes from the Missouri Department of Insurance, Financial Institutions and Professional Registration to the Missouri Department of Revenue, by Type I transfer, as defined under the Reorganization Act of 1974; and

2. Develop mechanisms and processes necessary to effectively transfer the function of collecting surplus lines taxes to the Missouri Department of Revenue; and

3. Transfer the responsibility for staff support for the function of collecting surplus lines taxes from the Missouri Department of Insurance, Financial Institutions and Professional Registration to the Missouri Department of Revenue.

This Order shall become effective no sooner than August 28, 2007, unless disapproved within sixty days of its submission to the First Regular Session of the 94^th General Assembly.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused to be affixed the Great Seal of the State of Missouri, in the City of Jefferson on this 30^th day of January, 2007.

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