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Investigating The Homeowners Insurance Crisis
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Strengthening Insurance Reform—MASSPIRG Executive Director Janet Domenitz talks to reporters about protecting consumers by reforming insurance regulations. |
MASSPIRG’s Legislative Director Deirdre Cummings was recently named as one of 15 members on a new commission established by the Legislature to review the problems with homeowners’ insurance in Massachusetts.
Massachusetts has been experiencing a homeowners’ insurance crisis for the past decade. Nationally, reinsurance rates have skyrocketed due to numerous catastrophic storms on the coastline. The threat of similar losses, paired with booming coastal property development, has caused insurers in the Commonwealth to raise premiums. Further, homeowners, first on the Cape and Islands, and increasingly in other parts of southeastern Massachusetts as well as along the North Shore, have even been dropped by their insurance companies.
The commission was charged with examining the availability and affordability of property insurance, the driving factors for relevant rates, and the current use of storm prediction models.
As of print time, the commission was working to file recommendations with the Legislature.
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Legislators Respond To MASSPIRG Transit Pledge
From the Berkshires to Cape Cod, affordable and reliable public transportation is vital to our quality of life. Reducing traffic congestion and air pollution, building our economy, cutting our dependence on oil, and providing more choices for commuting and travel are all benefits of public transportation.
Over the summer, MASSPIRG launched an effort to get members of the Legislature to pledge to support increased investment in public transit. As of press time, 12 legislators have signed the statement of support. More.
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Committee Considers Bigger Money For Politics
At a recent hearing of the Committee on Election Laws, a proposal filed by Rep. William Strauss to raise campaign contribution limits from $500 to $1,000 was considered.
MASSPIRG’s Executive Director Janet. S. Domenitz testified against the bill, noting, “The median income in Massachusetts in 2005 was $52,354. A single $1,000 contribution would represent 2 percent of that income. If there were three or four candidates you supported, you’d contribute almost 8 percent of your annual gross income to participate. In contrast, if we had $100 contribution limits, for example, you could give the maximum contribution to 5 different candidates and stay under 1 percent of your annual income.”
Raising contribution limits only serves to give an even louder “voice” to that very small fraction of the public who can afford to contribute at these higher levels, and drowns out the average contributor. More.
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MASSPIRG Serves On National Transit Panel
At the National Conference of State
Legislatures, (NCSL) which drew
over 9,000 lawmakers to the Boston
Convention and Exhibition Center,
MASSPIRG’s Dr. Phineas Baxandall
served on a panel of experts discussing
mass transit.
The conference, which featured,
among others, Speaker of the
House Nancy Pelosi, author David
McCullough, and Gov. Deval
Patrick, included 4 days of panels
and seminars on pressing local,
state and federal issues. Baxandall
stressed that at all levels of
government, we need to be much
more aggressive about investing
in mass transit as a way to reduce
our dependence on foreign oil, curb
air pollution for auto emissions,
ease the traffi c that clogs our major
thoroughfares, and improve our
quality of life.
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