Friday Headlines: But When Edition

We’re thankfully at the stage of the state budget process where legislative leaders are comfortable making metaphors.

According to state Sen. Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, we’re at the “beginning of the middle,” and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie says in three-way budget talks, “we might be in the same galaxy, but I don’t know if we’re in the same planet yet.”

Gov. Hochul’s car insurance proposal is a major impediment to progress, and Heastie said the fine print of her changes to existing law is causing the most consternation.

“The hell is in the details,” Heastie told reporters Wednesday. “And once you start diving into the details, you say, ‘Is this something that we could really be okay in doing?'”

He added that two portions of Gov. Hochul’s auto insurnace proposal were particularly troubling: Narrowing the definition of a serious injury in legal contexts, making it harder for crash victims to sue for compensation past $50,000 in no-fault insurance, and her proposed move toward modified contributory negligence, a system where crash victims found slightly more liable in a crash – 51 percent – wouldn’t be able to sue for pain and suffering damages following a crash.

Lawmakers, like the governor, are concerned about affordability during an election year, but even though they agree that car insurance is a place for savings, they haven’t found the governor’s argument that her changes will lower rates compelling. The lack of data showing a concrete connection between fraud and high rates and how insurance premiums would be lowered by her plan is particularly bedeviling.

“If I could just blink my eyes and insurance rates go down,” he said. “I’m sure my constituents will be happy, but that’s one of the issues we have to deal with.”

More news:

• Insurance Journal had a deep dive into Gov. Hochul’s car premium ploy — and it came to the same head-scratching conclusion as Streetsblog and state lawmakers. We urge all elected officials to read it.
• Hochul brought her affordability (car insurance scam) tour to Binghamton yesterday. (The Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin)

• Oh, for fuck’s sake, Nassau County! (Newsday)
• Lee Zeldin, Environmental Protection Agency administrator and former Republican gubernatorial candidate, may be tapped as the next U.S. attorney general. (The New York Times)
• New York City had its safest ever quarter for pedestrian, car or truck fatalities, although that number was far from zero. (The Daily News)
• Good government and business groups want the government to back off from a bill mandating two-person subway crews. (amNY)
• The feds officially raided the homes of a New York City council member and her sister, a Hochul aide. (Politico New York)
• A Nyack resident took the unreliability of Hudson Link buses into her own hands with a website. (The Journal News)
• Assembly Members are getting a million-dollar lounge in the state Capitol. (The New York Post)
• Dutchess County has 483 Flock Safety cameras, but law enforcement says that the data collected from the license plate reader isn’t shared with border agents. (The Red Hook Daily Catch)