If NJ can fix auto insurance, we can fix the tax problem!

In 2003, New Jersey finally shook off the vice grip of all those who at the time reaped the benefits of bad public policy which caused the highest insurance rates in the country. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported today:

New Jersey has fixed its auto insurance problem.

Five years after the state deregulated the industry, the results are in, and by almost every measure the reform has been a resounding success.

Premiums are down. Competition is up. The number of insured is up. Complaints to the state are down by more than half.

"I'm happy," said John Porreca, 22, a Cherry Hill resident who switched companies and saw his insurance bill drop $1,000.

For decades, auto insurance was the Mideast of New Jersey politics - an intractable mess. Fraud was too pervasive, the experts agreed. There were too many motorists banging into each other on too-crowded roads. The doctors or the lawyers or the insurers, take your pick, were too powerful.

This situation used to represent a hopeless nightmare for all New Jersey residents with no hope for improvement. That has changed. The last line of this excellent article says it all.

One such driver is Jack Warr, 63, who drives to his job at the Cherry Hill Mall from his home in Manahawkin. He said AIG had cut his bill by "a decent buck" since the new law passed, reducing the charge to cover the Hyundais that he and his wife drive.

Warr said he liked the idea of deregulation. Then he mused: "If they could do something like that with the property tax . . . ."

From your lips to the Governor and the legislatures ears Mr Warr.

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