Surety Bond News

Arkansas tobacco manufacturers have a new bond requirement to abide by thanks to a new bill named HB 1950. The new bill requires all tobacco manufacturers that aren’t participating in the Master Settlement Agreement to obtain a surety bond in the quantity of $50,000 or the amount the manufacturer was required to deposit in escrow as a result of its two prior calendar quarters’ sales in the State, whichever amount is more. This surety bond is also needed in order to be registered with the state Tobacco Registry.

Utah State legislators have been working on a bill that impacts highway construction projects within the state. The new bill is named HB 296 and authorizes local highway authorities who are sponsors on any federal highway construction projects to be a supplementary contractor alongside the Utah Department of Transportation (DOT); but this change is only effective for Class B and Class C roads. HB 296 also states that the local highway authorities can be an additional bondholder or obligee with the Department of Transportation on performance bonds.

A new bill was enacted in New York State concerning construction projects for the State University of New York (SUNY). The new bill is named SB 2808 and is a budget bill that boosts the bonding threshold for the University construction contracts from $50,000 to $250,000; this change affects performance and payment bonds. The increase is planned to sunset on June 30, 2016. The State University of New York and the Governor alike were large supporters of this modification which is meant to provide more opportunities for smaller and emerging contractors.

Some changes have recently been made relating to surety bond requirements and civil court cases in Montana State. The revised requirement, which is named HB 342, boosts the cap on appeal bonds in civil cases. The original law capped the surety bond amount at $1MM when it came to businesses of 100 employees or less. The new law, HB 342, increases the appeal bond cap for these businesses to $5MM. Although the bond requirement for civil cases was changed, the cap on all other cases remains the same at $50MM. Montana’s Governor attempted to veto this bond requirement bill, but the House overruled the Governor’s veto.

There is a new law in North Dakota that all debt management service providers must follow if they want to be able to perform legal business in the state. The new legislation is called HB 1038r and asks debt management services providers to acquire a 50,000 surety bond while also becoming licensed with the state. This new bill does allow the Commissioner of the Department of Financial Institutions to call for a larger bond amount which would be determined using regulations.