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Did you hear the news? The Louisiana legislature has passed new laws that will dramatically reduce your automobile insurance rates.
By 25%, says the insurance commissioner. And by the end of the year.
Wow! I can hardly wait to spend my savings. Well, don’t hold your breath.
When political courage wanes and politicians search for a quick fix to age-old problems, they often seek out a scapegoat to blame.
“Passing the buck” on someone else is standard operating procedure at the state legislature in Baton Rouge.
A number of new laws, all proposed by the insurance industry, make it more difficult for policyholders to sue in court.
Under the old law, any lawsuit with an award that can exceed $50,000 requires a jury trial.
The problem for those who are injured and decide to sue is that they face drastically higher costs for jury trials, which have to be paid up front.
Insurance company attorneys can beat them down with piles of motions all related to picking a jury.
Anderson Cooper on CNN has done a series of reports (all available online) about how the nation’s top auto insurance companies purposely drag out jury trials in an effort to wear down — financially and physically — those damaged in auto accidents.
Many insurance departments turn the other way to this calculated effort by the insurance industry to lessen the amount they have to pay out.
In a recent study by the U.S Chamber of Commerce’s Institute of Legal Reform showed that Louisiana is within the national average when it comes to per capita cost of lawsuits involving auto accidents.
So lawsuits are a minor part of why Louisiana has such high insurance rates. There are many other reasons why costs of auto insurance are so high in the Bayou State.
State Farm has ballyhooed the fact that they’re dropping their rates 9.6%.
But hundreds of thousands of drivers who the company insures are not driving that much because of COVID-19.
So there are a much fewer number of claims and the company is still making a big profit.
In most states, insurance companies have to submit rate increases to the insurance department for prior approval.
Bloomberg Business Week reported recently that in California, auto insurance rates dropped significantly.
Why?
Because all rate increases have to be approved by the insurance department.
So when insurance companies are allowed to raise their own rates without pre-approval, like in Louisiana, rates go up.
When pre-approval is required, rates are much less than in the Bayou State.
In summary, legislators and insurance officials have turned a blind eye to a variety of problems in the auto insurance field that have caused Louisianans to pay the highest rates in the nation.
Much easier to just blame the lawyers and the judicial system. Here is a list of problems ignored by the legislature, and are significant factors in why our insurance rates are so high in Louisiana.
Worst drivers in the nation as reported by CarInsranceComparison.com?
Rampant drunk driving where drivers have recently been cited for seventh and eighth DWIs?
Louisiana has one of the nation’s highest number of uninsured drivers, many who are illegal immigrants.
Laws on the books require that cars of uninsured drivers be impounded, laws that are rarely enforced.
Forbes Magazine reports that Louisiana is a bottom level state for infrastructure — bad roads and poor safety.
Catch my drift? There are a barrel of reasons why Louisiana leads the nation in high auto insurance rates.
It’s going to take a concentrated effort by legislators, the governor and insurance officials to put a comprehensive program in place that will cause rates to go down.
Looking for quick fixes by blaming lawyers, judges or any one group is disingenuous and will do little to address what has become a financial crisis for many drivers in Louisiana.
So don’t count on any premium reduction soon. Much more needs to be done.
“Both terrorism and insurance sell fear — and business is business”
― Liam McCurry
Peace and Justice
Jim Brown
Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide. You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.

COVID-19 is something we will have to learn to live with for years as medical professionals work to eliminate the virus from the population.
That was the message of Dr. W.S. “Chip” Riggins Jr., Regional Medical Director for the Bayou and River areas of the Region 3 Office of Public Health during an interview with The Daily Review Wednesday.
He said that citizens’ ability to expect and adapt to change as those in the medical field learn more about the virus will lead to more success.
“We may change the messaging to be more effective,” Riggins said.
Riggins said right now there is a concern among hospitals about medical personnel who have been impacted by the community spread and are in isolation if infected or in quarantine if exposed to someone who has the virus.
“They’re not coming to work right now, so that has our health care facilities vulnerable, worried about a surge, because they don’t have their normal staffing,” Riggins said.
Also, overwhelming hospitals could lead to additional issues, such as those in the community who are essential workers not wanting to leave their homes and go to work, meaning those essential services are affected.
Citizens can help in this effort by getting their flu shot this year, especially those who are students or healthy adults, Riggins said.
He said keeping a flu outbreak in check will be key to fighting COVID.
“The two together could be terrible,” Riggins said.
As for schools reopening, Riggins said that he think schools will reopen and need to. However, he said it would be much easier for them to function as normal as possible in Phase 3 as opposed to Phase 2, which the state is in right now.
“If we’re not seeing cases climbing and hospitals not full up, then Phase 3 happens before school starts and it makes it hugely easier for the school to open safely,” Riggins said. “If we fall backwards and our cases keep going up this summer and we have to go back to Phase 1, then it’s immensely harder for the schools to fully reopen. They want to reopen to all students. They want to be able to have everybody in class, with no one having to be remotely taught, but if we’re not in Phase 2 or 3, that’s going to be very, very difficult.”
Riggins message to parents is that while people are doing their best to prevent the spread of the virus, it is still going to reach class rooms and nursing homes.
“A third of the people have no symptoms, and when a disease is that sneaky, you can’t prevent it from coming in here today or into the schools,” he said. “It’s going to happen, so the question is when it does happen, are we going to be understanding with each other or are we going to allow our frustration to get the better of us, because it’s not going to be the fault of the schools. It’s the virus.”
He said parents can help by keeping their children home when they are ill.
As for sports, Riggins said, “It’s going to be a challenge, because there’s lots of droplets being spread in contact sports, so that’s going to be a challenge.”
He said the stands are just as concerning if people are not social distancing and wearing masks.
Regarding testing, Riggins said the state is working to ensure that duplicate positive tests are not counted twice, but it’s still a possibility.
“The computer systems to detect that aren’t perfect,” he said.
However, he said the bigger concern should be how many people are not getting tested that are symptomatic, something he said is large. Or even how many are in the 35% who are asymptomatic.
“The fact of the matter is the numbers for St. Mary Parish are an underestimate of what the parish has had overall, and we know it’s just the tip of the iceberg,” Riggins said. “What those numbers represent is the tip of the total iceberg of COVID infection in the community.”
In order to reach herd immunity, Riggins said it would probably take 60% of the population having the COVID 19 vaccine.
“Every year in Louisiana about 30% of adults take the flu shot, so we need to do twice as good with COVID vaccine to get to some level of herd immunity,” Riggins said.
One positive is the death rate is not rising like it did earlier, hospital stays are shorter and those being hospitalized are younger.
“So it’s younger people needing hospitalization, but they’re not needing to stay in the hospital as long.”

One obstacle to consolidating drainage districts serving Morgan City and Amelia has been removed.
The Louisiana Ethics Board said July 2 that it won’t offer an opinion on whether Tim Tregle’s appointment to the new Consolidated Gravity Drainage District 2A board runs afoul of state ethics rules.
The request for an opinion was filed by St. Mary Parish Council Chairman Dean Adams, who questioned Tregle’s appointment because Tregle is also a parish employee. The Ethics Board ruled that Adams didn’t have standing to seek the opinion.
The council merged drainage districts No. 6, in Amelia, and No. 2, in Morgan City, forming Consolidated Gravity Drainage District No. 2A, by ordinance on April 26. Proponents said the consolidation will save on administrative costs and help simplify the patchwork of parish taxing districts.
Tregle was appointed to the District No. 2A board by the Parish Council on May 22 along with Leroy Trim, Larry Aucoin, Charlie Solar Jr. and Hanko Hoffpauir. Plans were made for a June board meeting.
Tregle had also served on the District No. 2 board.
But Adams wanted the legal opinion. He pointed to Tregle’s employment as a senior analyst for the parish with responsibilities for collecting information on other possible consolidations.
In a May 14 letter to the Ethics Board, Adams said he wanted to know whether an employee who deals with financial and operational information about districts should serve on a board for a district that may itself be subject to consolidation.
Adams also wanted to know whether an employee charged with collecting financial and operational data can be required to give the information to the Parish Council on request.
Brandi Braze, writing on behalf of the Ethics Board, cited state law that says such opinions may be sought only by people affected by the question at issue.
Braze said information in Adams’ letter made it clear he was making the request as an individual and not as an affected person. And, Braze wrote, Adams wasn’t authorized to request the opinion on behalf of the Parish Council.
Parish President David Hanagriff has pushed for the consolidation. At a June meeting, he said Adams himself should consider whether his request for an ethics opinion was proper because Adams voted for Tregle’s appointment to the board.
Later, Adams said the board appointments were presented to the council in a single motion, making it impossible to vote against Tregle’s appointment without rejecting the other appointees, too.

A bill Louisiana lawmakers approved this year is meant to slow the growth of state spending in the years to come. It also could lead to some interesting political showdowns.
For decades, Louisiana has had an expenditure limit that puts a cap on state spending, at least in theory. Each fiscal year, a new limit is calculated based on the old limit multiplied by the average personal income growth over the past three years.
“It existed basically in name only, because it has a compounding effect built into it,” said Rep. Gerald “Beau” Beaullieu, a New Iberia Republican who sponsored legislation that, if approved by voters, would change how the limit is calculated.
Under Act 271, the new limit would add the three-year average change in gross domestic product, state population, and the regional consumer price index into the formula. Growth would be limited to no more than 5% annually. If the federal government provides more money related to COVID-19 relief, those dollars won’t count against the cap.
And, in what might be the most consequential change, the starting point for calculating each year’s limit would be the prior year’s state spending, not the previous year’s expenditure limit. As under the current system, legislators could adjust the cap if at least two-thirds of the members of each body agree to do so.
“I believe it gives the state a better gauge of what you would consider reasonable government growth,” Beaullieu said.
The expenditure limit basically counts “state effort” and does not apply to federal dollars. The current limit is $14.353 billion. Usually, state spending is about $400 million to $500 million below the limit, said Greg Albrecht, the Louisiana Legislature’s chief economist.
Using Moody’s Analytics’ baseline scenario for the state, Albrecht said projected annual expenditure limit growth could range from just under 1 percent to almost 3.4 percent over the next five years under the proposed change. The limit’s estimated annual growth under the current system would range between almost 2 percent and just under 4.6 percent.
“The limit’s not going to grow as fast,” he said.
The proposed constitutional amendment will be on the ballot in November. The expenditure limit typically is approved at the end of the calendar year and applies to spending approved for the following fiscal year that begins July 1.
“This does not cut the state budget,” said Morgan Wampold with the Pelican Institute for Public Policy, which supported the bill and generally opposes raising taxes and increasing government spending. “It limits the growth of state spending.”
Critics say tight spending limits can hinder a state’s recovery from a recession by forcing cuts to services. Moody’s in a 2019 report predicted Louisiana would see a 25 percent reduction in state revenue during a severe recession like the one we’re experiencing now, noted Jan Moller with the Louisiana Budget Project, which focuses on how state policy impacts low- and middle-income families.
“From these economic depths, Louisiana can likely expect a period of rapid growth as the economy returns to normal,” Moller said in written testimony to the House Appropriations Committee. “With this amendment, you would almost certainly need a two-thirds vote to pass a budget when growth picks up – essentially handing veto power to a minority of members in either house.”
The current expenditure limit triggered a standoff between former Gov. Kathleen Blanco and Republicans in the legislature, who at the time were the minority party. State revenues spiked because of the post-Hurricane Katrina rebuilding boom, and Republicans were able to exact concessions from the Democratic governor in exchange for their votes to lift the cap.
“In normal years the expenditure limit has not come into play, but normal years aren’t normal anymore,” said Steven Procopio with the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana. “A new base year – set at an unusually low level during an economic recovery – could bring the spending limit into play. The two-thirds votes required to raise the new limits will create some interesting politics.”
Beaullieu, a freshman legislator, said he wasn’t thinking about politics when he proposed the bill, which passed with bipartisan support and was signed by Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat. Edwards’ communication staff did not respond to an email asking why the governor decided to sign the bill.
While the effect might be to limit government growth, Beaullieu suggests the more detailed expenditure limit calculation also could provide ammunition for lawmakers who want to increase spending. If the population is growing, that means there are more taxpayers to support new spending and more people in need of government services.
“It gives both sides of the aisle some discussion points,” Beaullieu said.