Nov 3, 2017

PIANY legislative update: Heading into 2018 session

PIANY is hard at work to set up its legislative priorities prior to the official start of the 2018 state legislative session in January. PIANY celebrated significant accomplishments during the 2017 legislative session, including when it successfully turned back a proposal to increase fines for minor violations of the Insurance Law by 900 percent in the final state budget. PIANY kept working on behalf of members to achieve more legislative victories as the session progressed, including: addressing the onerous and confusing continuing-education requirements for agents and brokers who have multiple individual and business-entity licenses; supporting legislation to provide conditional renewal notices to workers’ compensation policyholders who face an increase in premium; and eliminating the outdated anti-arson requirements for policies sold in Buffalo, N.Y. The anti-arson repeal and CE reform bills were signed into law, and the workers’ compensation policyholder notice bill is awaiting Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s approval.

PIANY expects to again be active in fighting regressive proposals introduced by the state trial lawyer lobby to significantly expand liability for insurance carriers. The trial lawyers introduced numerous proposals last year, and by joining with other insurance agent and carrier associations, PIANY stood resolute in its opposition to these misguided proposals—and your association was successful in defeating them. The fight is expected to continue in 2018.

PIANY also will continue to work on other important issues, including legislation that would require the New York State Insurance Fund to pay commissions to licensed brokers, legislation to eliminate the NYSIF 30-day cancellation notice, legislation to eliminate the outdated requirements for automobile photo inspections and standardization of homeowners insurance hurricane deductible triggers.

January marks the official start of the 2018 legislative session and the efforts to craft a new state budget. If State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli’s new report on state finances is any guide, the string of on-time budgets may be about to run out. The state comptroller’s latest cash report cites tax receipts $387 million short of recent projections—and $2 billion below what Gov. Cuomo counted on in January. Meanwhile, Albany already faces a $4 billion hole in next year’s budget, which not even creative budget gimmicking will likely resolve.

With an election year coming up, expect the governor and Legislature to shower special interests with even more funding. To avoid red ink, they’ll both have to tighten belts or raise taxes, potentially sending more taxpayers fleeing. PIANY is proud of its successful 2017 legislative session and will continue to work with state policymakers and regulators in 2018 to improve the insurance marketplace in New York for agents, brokers and policyholders.