Surety Bond News

Various public officials in Indiana are affected by new surety legislation recently put in place. The new law is named HB 1025 and revokes the requirement that makes various public officials’ bonds annual. HB 1025 modifies an existing requirement for a bond with annual coverage in the amount of $30,000 for each $1 million of receipts of the officer’s office during the previous fiscal year before the acquisition of the bond; this new law affects city controllers, city clerk treasurers, town clerk treasurers, Barrett Law fund custodians, county treasurers, county sheriffs, circuit court clerks, township trustees, and conservancy district financial clerks. HB 1025 caps the bond at $300,000 for the officials listed.

The state of Georgia has enacted a new law affecting the Georgia Department of Transportation. The new law, which is named HB 137, terminates the $500,000 surety bond previously required of the Director of Planning for the Georgia Department of Transportation. The previous legislation set the bond requirement in order to guarantee that the responsibilities would be met by the Director of Planning.

A new bill was recently enacted concerning the Connecticut Airport Authority. The new bill is titled SB 1003 and requires the members of the Board of Directors for the Connecticut Airport Authority to acquire a $50,000 surety bond to guarantee that they fulfill their responsibilities; a $100,000 bond is required of the Executive Director of the Authority. A blanket bond is acceptable to satisfy the bond requirements for the board members as well as the Executive Director of the Authority. SB 1003 became active on July 1, 2011.

Surety bonds exist to guarantee that rules will be followed. More specifically, public official bonds exist to guarantee that officials such as treasurers, judges, tax collectors, sheriffs, etc. will perform their responsibilities according to both local and state laws. Citizens in Whitley County, KY should be thankful that their former Sheriff was required to obtain a public official bond being there are thousands of county dollars missing. (more…)

Wyoming circuit court judges and magistrates no longer need to worry about surety bonds. A new law titled HB 123 was enacted and it abolishes the $5,000 surety bond requirement for circuit court judges and the $1,000 surety bond requirement for magistrates.