{"id":201368,"date":"2026-04-17T23:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T23:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/201368\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T23:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T23:44:09","slug":"how-to-address-the-high-cost-of-car-insurance-in-new-york-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/201368\/","title":{"rendered":"How to address the high cost of car insurance in New York"},"content":{"rendered":"

As part of the state budget,\u00a0New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has made lowering car insurance premiums a priority,<\/a> but lawmakers are skeptical that her proposals will ensure savings for consumers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Capital Tonight interviewed two elected officials on opposite sides of the issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the pro side, Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano said that he was glad New York finally has a governor willing to take this issue head on.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey say $4,400 is New York\u2019s average so if you go to an urban center like Yonkers in a very high-cost place to live, which is in Westchester County, we\u2019re on the high end of that spectrum,\u201d Spano said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to Spano, the city of Yonkers is on the hook to pay 20% more to insure its 500 or 600 school buses than it did last year \u201cmostly because of the high cost of insurance.”<\/p>\n

He also pointed to the state of Florida, which successfully lowered its car insurance rates about five years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

But former personal injury attorney Rochester-area state Assemblymember Jen Lunsford countered Spano\u2019s argument.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s apples to oranges because the laws that Florida had that were able to be changed New York simply doesn\u2019t have,\u201d she said. \u201cFlorida also put in a 5% profit cap, a cap that has to be delivered back to consumers in the form of a rebate on their car insurance that specifically says, \u2018Florida State Insurance Reform Rebate\u2019. There is no such protection here in the governor\u2019s plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Lunsford agrees with Hochul on about 80% of her car insurance proposals, she says that the other 20% will negatively impact victims without a large enough return for ratepayers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lunsford is hoping that her bill\u00a0that limits the underwriting factors that can be used by insurance companies to set rates<\/a> will pass in the state budget. She is also hopeful that the Legislature forces insurance companies to prove they need to increase rates.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cInsurance companies count their liabilities as premiums in and claims out,\u201d she explained. \u201cThey can count their commercials. The Geico gecko and the Limu emu, you\u2019re paying for that with your car insurance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As part of the state budget,\u00a0New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has made lowering car insurance premiums a priority,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[206,205,109,3478,116,288,204,202,3365,9,11,10,49,12,112,87,201,27,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-201368","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-capital-tonight","10":"tag-app-local-state-politics","11":"tag-app-local-business","12":"tag-app-ny-state-of-politics","13":"tag-business","14":"tag-capital-tonight","15":"tag-capital-tonight-interviews","16":"tag-economy","17":"tag-new-york","18":"tag-new-york-headlines","19":"tag-new-york-news","20":"tag-new-york-state","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-ny-state-of-politics","23":"tag-politics","24":"tag-susan-arbetter","25":"tag-top-stories","26":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201368","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=201368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}