Curmudgeon's Corner

Another 'Bright' Idea For Wisconsin...

Posted by Al Campbell on Sept. 24, 2009

Wisconsin, Taxes, Quality of Life, Political

We saw the governor add mandatory auto insurance and saw him raise the minimum coverage limits just a few months ago.  Mandatory auto insurance has not worked in any state that has adopted it to this point; there is nothing to suggest that we'll figure out how to make it work.  The sole way this could work, and this is debatable, is for a penalty several times higher than the cost of the insurance for those caught without satisfactory insurance.  That 'ain't gonna happen'.

The increase in mandatory minimums will increase the cost of automobile insurance for everyone in Wisconsin by tens of percentage points.  American Family has already sent mailings to its policyholders to let them know what they are forced to do, and to try to prepare people for the 'sticker shock' that is about to hit.

Since these things became reality, the Democrats have come up with another 'bright' idea dealing with automobile insurance.  A new bill has been introduced that would forbid insurance companies from taking into account where the auto will be based when quoting premium costs.

This is similar to the community rating concept in health insurance.  No matter the age, sex or the health status of the person, all people pay the same rates.  In essence, we would have a "state rating" pool where the costs for high claims cost areas would be smoothed across all policyholders.

Why would this be proposed?  Because the elected representatives from those high cost areas don't think it is fair to their constituents.  Where are these high cost areas?  They are typically found in the large city/inner city and in the fringe areas adjacent to the large city/inner city.

The net result is that all of us will pay the price for issues that exist in the cities, without regard to the fact that we are not responsible nor do we have any control over the costs in those areas.

This is a typical liberal thought process, it seems.  Rather than to get down to the specifics of the causative factors and make the people responsible change their bad habits, why not just spread the cost and make believe there are no such problems.

To his credit, Governor Doyle has vetoed this approach in the past.  I certainly hope that he will do so again since this is likely to make its way to his desk given the leanings of the current Legislature.

Those of us in Germantown are already paying for the cost of poor education results in Milwaukee through our MATC tax burden and MATC's need to offer remedial education to the drop-outs.  We don't need to be forced to pick up a share of the Milwaukee citizens' auto insurance cost as well.  Where will this stop, if anywhere?

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The Curmudgeon Blog today is titled "Presidential Doublespeak".