Hodgen Mainda, state Commerce and Insurance commissioner, told members of the Chattanooga Rotary Club on Thursday the department has set up an online permitting system.
He said, "This modernizes the electrical and residential permit purchasing and inspection process by allowing statewide purchasing and online inspection requests. Customers will now be able to purchase and request inspections by simply, going online.
“Mobile inspections and online permitting will drastically reduce the amount of time of permit issuance and receipt making it virtually instantaneous and will benefit Tennesseans by increasing efficiency and decreasing wait times.”
The speaker said, “Our mission at TDCI is to protect Tennesseans through balanced oversight of insurance and regulated professions while enhancing consumer advocacy, education and public safety. We directly impact all 6.8 million Tennesseans daily.”
“At TDCI we regulate and enforce professional standards of conduct and statutory mandates for industries ranging from engineering to accounting. We currently have 380,000 active licensees and we grew from 254,513 in 2018 to 316,581 in 2019.”
He said he also serves as the Tennessee State Fire Marshal. "Today, we recognize 698 fire departments and 519 of them are staffed entirely by volunteers. Out of 22,065 active firefighters, 14,218 are volunteers. We look forward to continuing our support of volunteer firefighters.”
Commissioner Mainda said the insurance division brought in $1 billion directly to the general fund. He said $4 billion was recovered through mediation efforts in 2019 that went directly to the consumer.
He said there was $44.8 billion premium volume written in Tennessee by insurance companies, making Tennessee No.16 in the nation for premium volume and 33rd in the world.”
Commissioner Mainda said, “With Governor Lee’s budget we have a total budget of $40.8 billion, with $100 million returned to cities and counties and $1.15 billion placed in the rainy day fund."