LexFather

http://detnews.com/article/20091028/...-Detroit-fails

Bill to ban higher insurance rates in Detroit fails
Karen Bouffard / Detroit News Lansing Bureau

Lansing -- A bill to ban higher auto and property insurance rates for people who live in Detroit and other urban areas failed in the Senate this afternoon.

Senate Republicans brought the bill for a vote without debate over objections by its sponsor, Sen. Martha G. Scott, D-Highland Park, who has urged colleagues to pass the bill out of committee in nearly daily impassioned comments on the Senate floor.

"In the state of Michigan we pay the 12th highest (auto insurance) rates in the country, but in the urban areas we pay the highest in this country," Scott said. "We need to represent all citizens the same."

Sen. Alan Sanborn, R-Richmond, said the ban would cause insurance rates to go up for people who live in the suburbs and non-urban areas.

"(The bill would result) in higher insurance rates for three out of four Michigan drivers," Sanborn said. "I agree we have insurance issues to address, but (this bill) is not the answer."

mmarshall

Hard to believe they are higher in Michigan than in New York City or Los Angeles, which have reputations (deserved or not), of being the auto-theft capitals of the country. But, in all fairness, the insurance companies probably take big losses in the Detroit area, which, in many ways, has become a jungle. And people in Michigan, especially around the auto plants, have a reputation of being intolerant of non-American nameplate vehicles, sometimes even resorting to vandalism (never mind the fact that many European and Asian-nameplate vehicles are built right here in America, with American labor).

In fact, Mazda even has a plant in Michigan......at Flat Rock.