Insurance Fund approves $37 million loan

(Oklahoma City-AP) -- The State Insurance Fund has voted to give a $37 million dollar loan to pay insurance settlements to more than five-thousand injured workers. Some of the settlements got back as

Thursday, January 27th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

(Oklahoma City-AP) -- The State Insurance Fund has voted to give a $37 million dollar loan to pay insurance settlements to more than five-thousand injured workers. Some of the settlements got back as far as five years.

Lieutenant Governor Mary Fallin is a member of the Insurance Fund's board of managers. Fallin says the loan was approved to the state's Multiple Injury Trust Fund, which has a huge backlog of workers compensation insurance payments. A law passed by the Legislature last year required the Insurance Fund to make a substantial dividend payment to its policyholders, including state agencies.

The law calls for the amount that would go to state agencies instead be diverted to pay off the longstanding injury awards owed by the injury trust fund. The Insurance Fund's governing board has resisted the dividend idea and instead proposed a loan.