Monday Headlines: Insurance Politicking Edition

Even more outlets are joining the fray, and trying to suss out why the governor is so dead set on changes to car insurance that have clear drawbacks for New Yorkers and much more opaque benefits. (Hellgate)

As more time passes after the state budget deadline has passed, the pressure campaign from either side is growing. City & State has reported on astroturfed supporters on either side of the issue. The New York Times reported that nearly 100,000 automated letters organized by Uber have been sent to lawmakers (some sent without the knowledge of the signatories) in a bid to counter the lobbying and political might of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association.

Car insurance reforms are one of, if not the most, critical parts of this year’s (late) state budget negotiations as state lawmakers and the governor look for ways to make life affordable in New York.

To Gov. Hochul, making that happen means making it incredibly difficult for crash victims to sue for various forms of damages, if not outright disqualifying them, and rooting out auto insurance fraud, which Streetsblog has found to be a manufactured issue in New York, and largely the result of no-fault insurance, which the governor is not altering.

She’s brought up the success of other states’ reforms, but that reasoning isn’t holding up either.

According to The Washington Post, Florida’s changes mostly helped insurance companies, the same ones that state lawmakers in New York say haven’t been sharing any information on how they would lower rates.

More news:

• Good government groups say the general government should be more alarmed by the regularly late state budgets in New York. (State of Politics)
• If Nassau Republicans are being big ol’ fakers about their congressional nominee, they don’t have much longer to backtrack. (Newsday)
• Hochul’s running mate, former New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, funneled $435,000 to a migrant shelter nonprofit caught up in a federal probe that’s seen the homes of politicians and even a Hochul aide raided. (The New York Post)
• A new bill would force the MTA to tell riders about bedbug infestations on its subways and buses. (The New York Post)
• Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal wants Albany to help find answers about what officials knew about Ground Zero toxins. (The Daily News)
• Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wants Hochul to scrap a plan to widen the Cross Bronx-Expressway. (amNY)
• Republicans’ power in statehouses like New York is waning, as evidenced by the resignation of some of their top leaders. (Politico New York)
• A family suing Beacon for its role in the death of a pedestrian is taking its appeal to the state Supreme Court. (The Highlands Current)
• The Daily News editorial board does not want the state legislature to tell the MTA how many conductors it needs on every train.
• Freshman Assembly Member Jordan Wright (D-Harlem) has an independent expenditure committee backing his re-election campaign, where he faces a DSA challenger. (New York Focus)
• Henrietta, a town outside of Rochester, is installing its first bike boulevard to make public riding safer. (The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle)
• Looks like an 18-year-old male gave up driving dangerously for Lent, since he rang in Easter Sunday by driving into a Oneonta family’s dining room yesterday. (Finger Lakes Daily News)