Brooklyn Borough President

BROOKLYN'S ASSIGNED RISK PLAN AUTO INSURANCE PREMIUMS SOARING ANOTHER 30% ON AUGUST 15TH - BOROUGH PRESIDENT CHALLENGES INDUSTRY TO COME CLEAN ON BROOKLYN RATES

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz today called it “completely unacceptable” that the 30,000 Brooklyn drivers covered by New York State’s Auto Insurance Plan (AIP) will be hit with a 30% premium increase the next time they renew their policy. Premiums have almost doubled in just four years.

“It’s absurd that for many of us the biggest investment isn’t our car, it’s our annual insurance bill. Forget about what you hear about New Jersey, it is Brooklyn drivers, unfortunately, who are stuck paying the nation’s highest auto insurance premiums!” Borough President Markowitz said. “It is getting extremely difficult, even for good drivers, to get affordable auto insurance in Brooklyn. That forces many drivers to either pay these exorbitant rates, register their cars out of state or even hit the streets without any insurance. This is a dangerous and potentially deadly trifecta. For most Brooklynites, a car isn’t a luxury item but a necessity. But the State, and many insurance companies, doesn’t seem to want to do business in Brooklyn.”

Starting August 15th, even a good driver covered by AIP will pay an incredible $5,101 a year just for the minimum liability coverage required by law. That’s compares to $2,665 approved in 2000, $3,420 approved in 2001 and $3,924 approved last year. If you’ve got a late model car and want comprehensive coverage, it will cost you at least $8,543. And it’s significantly higher if you’ve had an accident or moving violation in the past three years or are under 35 years old. A young male driver with a good record will still have to pay an astounding $8,470 just for basic coverage and $12,721 if you include comprehensive.

In recent years, auto premiums have risen more than in Brooklyn than in any other part of the state. It’s reached the point where the kind of insurance that drivers in other areas take for granted – ‘voluntary’ market policies purchased through brokers looking for the best deal from various insurance companies who are supposed to be competing for our business – is becoming a rarity. It used to be that only the most high risk drivers would have to turn to the AIP for coverage. However, because a growing number of insurance companies don’t sell through the hundreds of ‘storefront’ insurance brokers who serve many Brooklyn neighborhoods, even drivers with good records are told the only policy they can buy is through AIP.

Borough President Markowitz calls upon and invites Assemblymember Pete Grannis, Chair of the Assembly’s Insurance Committee, to come to Brooklyn this fall and join with him in conducting hearings into the causes of Brooklyn’s sky high rates, what the State and the insurance industry are doing about this, and what more needs to be done to bring this crisis under control.

“I’m asking the CEO of every major New York underwriter to explain to me – and the public—how they set their rates, how they set the premiums for new drivers applying for insurance and what they are doing to bring the cost of insurance down in Brooklyn,” Borough President Markowitz added. “The time has come to stop treating Brooklyn drivers like second-class citizens.”

Borough President Markowitz is asking all for Brooklyn drivers, insurance brokers or business owners to let him know about their auto insurance horror stories. Please send him an email at autoinsurance@brooklynbp.org.