Thursday Headlines: Follow Through Edition
For months, Gov. Hochul, insurers, trial lawyers and lawmakers all claimed to know what was driving New York’s sky-high auto insurance premiums. The problem was that few people outside the state Department of Financial Services ever got to see how insurers justified raising rates in the first place.
The Hochul administration took a step toward changing that yesterday, proposing regulations that would require insurers to obtain state approval before any overall average increase in private passenger auto insurance rates takes effect. The rules implement this year’s repeal of New York’s “flex rate” system, which previously allowed insurers to put through some increases without prior approval.
As Streetsblog previously reported, lawmakers insisted on ending flex rates during budget negotiations, alongside restrictions on insurers’ use of ZIP code, education, occupation and homeownership status to set premiums. Those changes were among the few concessions the insurance industry made in exchange for broader reforms that largely reflected Hochul’s agenda, including limits on some crash victims’ legal rights.
The regulations won’t automatically lower premiums. But they do mean insurers will have to make their case to the state every time they seek an overall rate increase instead of relying on a streamlined process that allowed increases of up to 5 percent to take effect without prior approval. They also preserve insurers’ ability to implement overall average rate decreases of up to 5 percent without prior approval and require companies to notify policyholders when premiums fall because of this year’s reforms.
The proposal is now subject to a 60-day public comment period before taking effect on Nov. 27.
Elsewhere in the Empire State:
- A judge rejected a lawsuit from a City Hall gadfly seeking to throw out Buffalo’s 11 charter ballot measures, ruling the Charter Review Commission had properly produced the report required to put them before voters in November. (Buffalo News)
- An Albany County sheriff’s investigator was charged with misdemeanors after allegedly using Flock license-plate camera data to track a former girlfriend and four other acquaintances thousands of times, marking the Capital Region’s first high-profile case of an officer abusing the technology to surveil a former partner. (The Times Union)
- State Senate Transportation Chair Jeremety Cooney wrote how upstate transit systems deserve a bigger slice of state operating aid. (The Times Union)
- A Cold Spring homeowner who owns the property at the entrance to Dockside Park is asking a judge to rule that a narrow 1988 easement — not a 2020 agreement she later signed — governs access across her land, arguing it was never meant to accommodate the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail’s crowds. (Highlands Current)
- A new Uber-funded ad backing Hochul’s reelection leans on cute kids and family-policy messaging, part of more than $13 million the ride-hailing giant has funneled into boosting the governor since January, which includes insurance reforms Uber itself lobbied for. (Gothamist)
- Newly released renderings show what stations on the MTA’s $5.5 billion Interborough Express could look like, with wider fare gates, more elevators and a modern aesthetic breaking from the century-old subway system as the Brooklyn-Queens light rail project moves through design. (Gothamist)
- State Sen. Jessica Ramos repeatedly billed both her campaign and state taxpayers for the same travel expenses, according to records and former aides, creating at least 57 instances of overlapping Amtrak charges and hotel costs that both the state comptroller and the legislature’s ethics watchdog say they’ll now review. (The New York Times)
- A quarter-century after 9/11 destroyed Lower Manhattan’s transit infrastructure, the neighborhood’s subway and PATH network is unrecognizable, rebuilt around the Oculus, the reconstructed Cortlandt Street station and the sprawling Fulton Center hub. (amNewYork)
- An intraparty feud over control of the Brooklyn Democratic Party went forward despite public opposition from Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, exposing the limits of the party’s two most powerful Brooklynites weeks before the midterms. (Politico New York)
- Thomas Lobianco was indicted on 19 counts, including aggravated vehicular homicide, after prosecutors say he drove impaired through a red light and onto a sidewalk in Nesconset, killing construction worker Joel Sicon-Porix and seriously injuring two of his coworkers. (Newsday)
Read More:
Streetsblog has migrated to a new comment system. New commenters can register directly in the comments section of any article. Returning commenters: your previous comments and display name have been preserved, but you'll need to reclaim your account by clicking "Forgot your password?" on the sign-in form, entering your email, and following the verification link to set a new password — this is required because passwords could not be carried over during the migration. For questions, contact tips@streetsblog.org.
