The MTA is backing Hochul's push to lower car insurance rates by stripping rights from some crash victims and is pushing the idea that jackpot lawsuits are limiting investments in transit.
Speaking on Friday alongside Hochul and state DOT Commissioner Marie Therese Dominguez, MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber told reporters "billboard lawyers" were treating the MTA like a piggy bank and it was costing the transit authority $50 million a year.
Hochul's auto insurance proposal hinges on the idea that by limiting fraud and opportunities to sue people and entities following a crash, costs will be lowered for insurance companies, which will then pass those savings on to consumers. The draw for Lieber and the MTA has less to do with the actual auto insurance, though. By limiting opportunities to sue for pain and suffering, the MTA could become a less frequent target of lawsuits and save money on payouts.
"That money that we should be spending on great service is going for payoffs to well-connected billboard lawyers instead," Lieber said, "guys who seem to think that the MTA is actually spelled ATM." (It's worth pointing out that those same "billboard" lawyers take out ads all over the city subway and bus system, so Lieber clearly likes them ... sometimes.)
For the MTA, $50 million is a drop in the bucket of its $21 billion budget, but Lieber noted projects like the Queens bus project cost roughly $35 million, making any extra funding useful.
Hochul's proposal is backed by Uber, which has been spending heavily on advertising to support the governor's proposal, while splashing some cash in Hochul's campaign coffers.
New Yorkers are already being asked to take logical leaps about rampant fraud in New York that's responsible for premiums going up, and to swallow the concept that cash victims will not lose some of their rights to sue for compensation. Now the governor wants to tell reporters how to cover her proposal, too, and that its ties to Uber are being overblown.
"I don't know how you can say that one company that has an interest in this has any influence over the fact that everybody has an interest," Hochul said. "Unless you're trying to commit fraud or a beneficiary of these jackpot payouts, who would not be on the side of cutting out this system and changing it radically. So I just pose that to everybody to cover it in that lens."
Unfortunately for the governor, Streetsblog doesn't take editorial advice from the second floor. A few of our competitors may be susceptible, but that's for them to reckon with.
More news:
- Taxing the rich and a potentially ISIS-inspired attempted bombing in New York are campaign topics during this year's governor's race. (The Journal News)
- State employees are looking for an improved pension plan but it's cost is giving many pause. (The Buffalo News)
- The Transit Workers Union is fighting to make two-person subway crews mandatory. (The Daily News)
- Former State Trooper Christopher Baldner was convicted of manslaughter after he rammed his vehicle into an SUV after pepper-spraying its driver, and the resulting crash killed 11-year-old Monica Goods. (The Times Union)
- The Nassau County GOP is running a nominee with no campaign apparatus to challenge Rep. Laura Gillen. (Newsday)
- A drunk driver crashed into a Central Islip home. (News 12 Long Island)
- On Long Island, being a crossing guard is more dangerous than one would think. (Newsday)
- The Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority is rolling out a Women's History Month-themed bus. (BTPM)
- A man was found dead Saturday on the Penn Station subway tracks. (ABC7)
