Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Rallies With Leaders and Advocates to Highlight Auto Insurance Reform Proposals as Support Grows

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul rallied with leaders and advocates to highlight her proposals to bring down auto insurance costs and tackle fraudulent claims across New York State as support continues to grow. The Governor is taking common-sense steps to battle fraud, limit damages paid out to bad actors and ensure that consumers, not insurance companies, are prioritized. These proposals build on the Governor's ongoing efforts to make the state more affordable and put money back into the pockets of hardworking New Yorkers.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

 Good afternoon, everyone - good morning. Hi, everyone. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So proud to see every single one of you because you're representing thousands, millions of New Yorkers across the state who get up every day and go to their jobs. They take care of their families, they go to their small businesses and they don't have the ability to be in this room, but your voices are representing them, and I'm so proud of you for showing up because that's how we're going to drive change here in the State of New York.

We've heard our speakers - representatives from our senior community representing those with disabilities and those who care for them, our small business community, our first responders - and you've heard collectively the impact of an out-of-control system that's been going on flagrantly before our eyes for many, many years, until now. We're now harnessing the voices of the people who had been voiceless before to stand up and say, "Life is too expensive," and one of the reasons is the bills we receive, including those when our insurance bills are going up every single month, and enough is enough. It's time to stop the insanity.

And I look at this, it shouldn't have to be a fight, right? It shouldn't have to be so hard. And yet, there are entrenched interests pumping money against the interests of New Yorkers that we are representing here today. Now, I didn't make up the fact that we're number two in the nation for staged car crashes. That's what's happening though, and you cannot turn a blind eye to that circumstance because guess what? It's not just Sam Fresina and the people who have to go out there and clean up the mess, put themselves in danger - our firefighters, our police officers - but it's the rest of us who are paying the bills for that staged accident, and these schemes are incredible.

Newspapers, news outlets like Newsday have uncovered an entire ecosystem of corrupt people who are trying to steal money from all of your pockets with higher premiums, because the insurance companies didn't create this scenario. This is not on them. I got them on other things, okay? They're not off the hook, but they're not involved. It's a whole system of criminals and enterprises that are deadset on just trying to squeeze more money out of the system. That system is us, whether it's their lawyers, the doctors who are fraudulently writing out more excessive claims and damages than really existed. It's all happening right now and it's actually quite shocking that no one has ever said anything about it until this moment.

Also, why? Why is the cost so much more expensive here in the state of New York than in other states? Now, I'm going to say this: my drivers are not worse than anybody else's. I'm going to protect my drivers and their reputation, right? But we have laws in place that reward bad behavior. Why should a drunk driver who causes an accident, causes injury to others, who might suffer a little bit of injury themselves, get a whole bonanza payout because they have really good lawyers in court and a sympathetic jury who's not listening? We are paying the price for those laws. I want those laws to be more in line with what other states are doing, and if someone is injured and it's not their fault, I'll protect them in court. I'll stand up for them. So all the lies that are circulating around this Capitol and beyond, do not listen to them because they have a financial self-interest in what they're telling you. It is not the truth.

So here's what I want to see: I want all of you to let your legislators know - and some are certainly sympathetic and I appreciate them, but others are listening to the wrong people - listen to your own constituents. Go back out there, go in the diners that I sit in. Yes, people mocked me up because I listened to people in diners when they told me prices were too high. Guess what? They were right. They were right and they're still right, and they're sitting in diners, not fancy-schmancy restaurants, because that's all they can afford. I happen to like diners better than the fancy restaurants, but a lot of people that's as good as it's going to get, right?

There's families that are hurting out there, utility bills, which I'm trying to do something about. I'm trying to get money back from the federal government, $13.5 billion that they sucked out of the New York State economy and families' pockets with an illegal scheme to impose tariffs on products that we use every single day. I'm trying to get that money back and I'm also going to try really hard with your help - we're going to be successful my friends - in making sure that we have a system related to car insurance and liability laws that makes sense.

Now, Florida did this. I'm going to go out on a limb right here and say, I don't usually use Florida as a model for anything, okay? Not at all. But they examined the fact that their drivers, their companies, their small business, their first responders were paying such excessive premiums for insurance and they started to look at why, what's going on here? And they came up with a series of reforms, and you know what? One year later prices were down about 10 percent. The next year, in some cases, they dropped to 20 percent. Doesn't that sound like something we'd use right here in the state of New York? Don't our residents and our businesses and our seniors, people with disabilities and our firefighters, don't they deserve that as well? Don't they deserve that? Well, I say they do. So join with me, with all the men and women of labor and our Teamsters and our [inaudible], everybody. We can make this change. Let's drive this home now. Thank you, everybody.

Contact the Governor's Press Office