Advocacy

This week, the Senate and Assembly released their “one-house" budget proposals, which are a statement of each house's priorities for the state budget. Both the Senate and Assembly rejected virtually all the Governor's policy proposals, including legislation to allow carriers to waive photo inspections for the next four years. This means it is unlikely, but not impossible, that photo inspection reform will be adopted as part of the final state budget. While disappointing, this outcome was not entirely unexpected. In recent years, the state legislature has increasingly pushed back on the inclusion of legislative policy in the budget, preferring to address only matters with a direct…

​​On March 9th​​​​, the NYS Assembly unanimously passed Big I NY-supported legislation to eliminate an unnecessary ​burden on customers by repealing the anti-arson application statewide. Section 3403 of the Insurance Law requires the completion of an “anti-arson application" for people seeking property insurance for fire or explosion to complete. If a policyholder fails to complete this application, which is required upon initial application for insurance and on each subsequent renewal of the policy, the insurer must cancel the policy. Technology has advance dramatically since the application was first required, and the law has outlived its usefulness. Insurance companies today are required by law to have fraud prevention plans, which are filed…

This week, independent agents from across the state participated in virtual meetings with state lawmakers, urging them to pass photo inspection modernization as part of the state budget. Governor Hochul's executive budget proposal includes legislation to allow carriers to waive CARCO inspections, and we are pushing the Senate and Assembly to follow suit in their respective budget proposals.Independent Agents Advocacy Week began with a kickoff session keynoted by Senator Neil Breslin, chairman of the influential Senate Insurance Committee and sponsor of photo inspection reform legislation. “On photo inspection, we're pushing it again very hard…hopefully we'll get it passed and signed into law and we'll all…