Montana’s Commissioner of Securities and Insurance Matt Rosendale passed up a 3.7 percent pay increase in 2017, while the governor and other agency heads accepted their raises.

“The governor had asked all agency directors to look for ways to cut expenses by 10 percent,” said Rosendale. “For myself as just a small part of that effort to reduce costs, I gave up my statutory pay increase, while I will say that none of the other statewide officials or judges declined that increase in pay. As a matter of fact, that very week that the compensation increase began, the governor sent out a memo asking agencies to reduce their spending, while he himself was taking an increase in compensation.”

Rosendale released his 2017 Year in Review report on Tuesday, chronicling the accomplishments his office achieved.

“We achieved a 6.3% reduction in total staff, 18% reduction in appointed staff, 23% reduction in operating costs,” Rosendale said. “ We found an additional $450,000 transfer to the state general fund to help solve the state’s budget issues due to the special legislative session, on top of the over $7 million fiscal year-end transfer and other cuts.

There were 53 public records requests handled, for an average of one new request every week. We reported over $11 million in premium saved for more than 56,000 Montanans

More than 1,400 complaints and inquiries handled, over $6.6 million recovered for Montana consumers, and in addition, over 300 legal cases, matters, opinions, and reviews were closed, with over $6.5 million in ordered restitution and $136,700 in fines.”

Read Rosendale’s full report here.

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