The advocates involved in the lawsuit have disputed this.<\/a><\/p>\nState Sen. Pete Harckham, chair of the Environmental Conservation Committee, said Democratic lawmakers have expressed only limited resistance to the aspects of Hochul\u2019s plan that deal with the practical matters surrounding deadlines tied to the lawsuit. But he said it is the rest of the proposal \u2014 including changing the way the state tallies emissions and tracks progress, and the fact that it remains unclear what regulations for reaching emissions-reduction goals would look like \u2014 that is fueling resistance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe realize we\u2019re behind when it comes to emissions because we have not implemented cap and invest. We need to do cap and invest. If the governor needs more time on that, the legislature is willing to discuss that,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat\u2019s on the table now is a wholesale gutting of the state\u2019s climate law, and that\u2019s something that I don\u2019t think most of us in the legislature are willing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the environmental debate takes up much of the discussion, the tension surrounding it was to be expected. But the governor’s car insurance plan has emerged as especially stubborn.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Supporters of the governor’s proposal argue the state\u2019s system is being driven up by organized fraud schemes, medical billing practices and litigation costs which get passed on to drivers in the form of higher premiums. Critics, especially the state’s trial lawyers, say the Hochul’s approach risks going too far by tightening access to the courts and limiting injured New Yorkers\u2019 ability to recover damages, even as both sides broadly agree that premium costs have become unsustainably high across much of the state.<\/p>\n
The vast scope of the lobbying involved in the debate has been a key topic of conversation around the capitol, as has the governor\u2019s disdain for the role trial lawyers are playing in their opposition.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet them say why they\u2019re standing with trial lawyers to the detriment of the public,\u201d Hochul said of state lawmakers Tuesday, responding to a question about her spat with Gianaris.<\/p>\n
Tom Stebbins, executive director of the Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York, was on hand in Albany to stump for the governor, and argued that trial lawyers wield disproportionate influence in the debate amid charges that Hochul herself has been influenced by Uber\u2019s nationwide campaign for insurance reform.<\/p>\n
Stebbins slammed the idea that the actual policy debate can or should be summed up as \u201cUber vs. the trial lawyers,\u201d even if that\u2019s where much of the money is coming from.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the trial lawyers versus everybody else,\u201d Stebbins said. \u201cThe truckers have come out against it. Nonprofits have come out against it. Businesses large and small.”<\/p>\n
Gianaris countered that Uber\u2019s spending in New York to run a multimillion-dollar campaign in the governor\u2019s favor is no better, adding that if they\u2019re spending that much, they must be anticipated making even more off of the change.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Uber playbook that has been very successful in Republican states all around this country is trying to be implemented in New York,\u201d Gianaris said. \u201cThey are the ones who are spending, I think, past $8 million to advance this campaign. The trial lawyers haven\u2019t done that, as far as I know.\u201d<\/p>\n
It comes as a chief objection from state lawmakers who are pushing back against the governor remains the idea that insurance companies could be let off the hook absent a mechanism to force them into lowering rates or facing significant reforms themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cRather than encouraging New Yorkers to blame one another for fraud, wise policy would look at the far more significant and costly abuses being driven by insurers themselves,\u201d said Doug Quinn, executive director of the American Policyholder Association. \u201cNothing in this plan addresses those practices. Insurers can\u2019t keep logging record profit years while at the same time, shorting claims and crying poverty to increase premiums. New Yorkers should be able to count on their elected officials to create common sense solutions that work for the citizens of the state, and not further tipping the tables in favor of the insurance industry.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York may not have a state budget, but there was plenty of posturing in Albany Tuesday as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180649,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[206,116,295,9,11,10,49,51,50,112,108],"class_list":{"0":"post-197847","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-albany-capital-region","9":"tag-app-ny-state-of-politics","10":"tag-jack-arpey","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-news","14":"tag-new-york-state","15":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","16":"tag-new-york-state-news","17":"tag-ny-state-of-politics","18":"tag-ny-state-of-politics-blog"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}