Is Auto Insurance Reform ‘Dead’ At the State Capitol?
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan is pushing lawmakers to pass bills that would roll back auto insurance rates in Michigan.
State lawmakers are back in Lansing after their summer recess. But before they could even get started on their agenda for the fall, one of their top priorities may already be in jeopardy. And it’s one of particular interest here in Detroit.
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan is pushing lawmakers to pass bills that would roll back auto insurance rates in Michigan.
State Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof (R-West Olive) said this week that any plan that included mandatory rate reductions would be, “Dead, dead, dead” in the Senate.
What does this mean for the future of auto insurance rates in Michigan, especially in Detroit where they’re higher than anywhere else in the country?
And what else might lawmakers be up to between now and the end of the year?
Rick Pluta, state Capitol bureau chief for the Michigan Public Radio Network, joins Detroit Today with Stephen Henderson to discuss those questions and preview the Legislature’s upcoming fall session.
“There’s a lot of pressure to get any controversial business that’s hanging fire taken care of before we head into the even-numbered election year,” says Pluta.
He says an auto insurance overhaul “has been hanging out there for as long as I’ve been covering Michigan politics, which has been 30 years. And it is the biggest priority, probably, on the to-do list. But it’s also the toughest.”
Click on the audio player above to hear the full conversation.
