Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul and MTA Leadership Announce Projections for Major Transit Savings Under Governor's Auto Insurance Reform Proposal

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) today announced a new MTA analysis showing that the Governor's proposal to lower the cost of auto insurance would deliver $48 million in annual recurring savings for the authority. The Governor's proposal will save money for the MTA for the same reason it will save money for millions of everyday drivers - by changing laws that force too many New Yorkers to pay through the roof for crashes that aren't their fault. Specifically, her plan will prevent the MTA from being forced to pay "jackpot" settlements for crashes in which their buses were not primarily to blame.

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 morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us here and coming to this depot. It reminds me of the extraordinary heroes every day who are out there in blizzards and in extreme heat and all the weather and all conditions to make this city work. And I want to commend everyone who is part of the MTA bus system, our drivers in particular who put themselves out there with a sense of mission to make sure that this city actually moves around and we can get our people where they need to go. So proud to be here with MTA workers, and of course, Janno Lieber, who heads up our entire organization and has done an extraordinary job through some very difficult financial challenges and challenges to make sure that we're making the investments we need to. And I'm really proud of the work that we're doing together. So thank you, Janno Lieber, you'll be hearing from our CEO and Chair of the MTA briefly. Also someone who's a true public servant in every sense of the word, someone who we worked with for many, many years our Commissioner of DOT, Marie Therese Dominguez. And so I went to her to give a few reflections on the topic of today, talking about how we can put more money back in people's pockets, reduce the cost of living in our state.

And as you know, I've been laser focused on this for quite a long time, and last year we worked hard to put upwards of $5,000 back in family's pockets. But you know what's really frustrating to me? We work hard to reduce costs and help with child care, and help with building more housing to drive down rents. We're doing all this on this side of the equation, and over here people's expenses are going up, especially when they got their premium bills for their car insurance over the last year or so. Car insurance premiums are going up astronomically, and it is just a shock wave to families who are still trying to figure out. I didn't budget for this much, how am I going to pay these bills? So the sky high cost of car insurance has been a real problem. I've said it before, New York State pays some of the highest car insurance rates in America - averaging $4,000 a year, about $1,500 more than the national average.

And also, let's talk about why we're taking on a fight this year. I have to do something about this. And when data comes to me, that shows that one of the reasons when I'm saying, why is this happening in New York or all the other states drivers better than ours? I don't think so. What is going on that is so different here in the State of New York? So I peel back and try to find answers. And one of them is that we've seen an 80 percent increase just since 2020 in fraud reports that are driving the rates up. Eighty percent increase in fraud reports in the last six years - that's inexplicable. How is that happening? Well, I'll tell you why: Because there are criminals out there trying to scam the system, and it has to stop. And that's why you've heard me talk about how we can drive down premiums. And there's a whole other side of the story. We talk about drivers and families and people who have to rely on their vehicles here and all over the state.

But there's another side of the story, a whole different way of looking at this. And I want people in New York City to understand, because you may not even own a car in New York City and not be concerned about this. But we're here to talk about the effect that these skyrocketing premiums, as well as, in addition to that, the cost to entities like the MTA and other government entities because of these cases where people are scamming the system and driving up our costs. What we have now is situations where the MTA is self-insured, so clearly their premiums don't go up, but their costs do. The costs of litigation go up and that is what's becoming a real problem when we are trying to find ways to have more savings with the taxpayer dollars that are invested into this system. So what happens is even though they're self-insured, they're sometimes forced to pay some really outrageous jackpot legal settlements, even when their own drivers are not at fault. And it's costing us millions and millions of dollars. So who loses in this? All the transit riders.

Because the money that we're spending on these payouts is money that's not being spent investing in this system. You'll hear more about this from Janno in a couple of minutes. But it's not just here, its transit agencies from Buffalo to Syracuse to Albany to Rochester. So this is a statewide phenomenon that is affecting the bottom lines of our transit systems, because those who are involved in a crash with the public transit vehicle, they can take advantage of existing laws and try to get massive payouts - just like the bad actors who are exploiting and setting up everyday - trying to get massive payouts that drive up insurance rates when they're staging accidents. So the system is flawed. I as the Governor cannot say I'm going to continue with the system that I've learned is flawed and having these impacts. So according to a new analysis by the MTA, the common sense reforms I've already proposed in my budget this year to the state legislature would save almost $48 million in savings, and Janno can explain how that would work.

But also, it's not just the MTA. As I said, this could be real savings for all of our other transit systems across the state, and we've estimated about $25 million in savings for our other upstate systems as well. So I want to take on a broken system. We have 6,000 buses in the MTA system, nearly 3,000 in other systems statewide. And just like millions of drivers who are facing higher costs, these hardworking bus drivers and public transit agencies are being taken advantage of by bad actors, and they have to pay out these enormous awards. So we're going to continue looking at this. There are some cases that make you really question how people think they can get away with it. But guess what, they are. A case of an MTA bus in Queens. They made a legal right turn onto the Northern Boulevard and it was slammed into. Slammed into by a tour bus that was speeding and already gone through a number of red lights. So is the MTA at fault? They're the bus driver at fault? No, clearly not at fault, but because of their deep pockets, they were sued and the agency was on the hook for nearly $40 million in jackpot settlements - $40 million, one case.

That money could have been far better spent staying in this system to make the investments that were so interested in accomplishing. So what we have to do is make sure that these loopholes are closed, I plan to do that. We're trying to hit the brakes on lawsuits that seek unjust monetary damages for the MTA and other entities. If someone's involved in an accident, yes of course, if there is fault on our part there should be compensation. Of course, of course, of course. We're not talking about changing that, there should be fair compensation. And for victims who are not at fault, whether it's a driver, a pedestrian or a cyclist, they must continue to be protected. That's not what we're talking about. But if someone causes a car crash, they should not be taking advantage of other drivers who are paying the price for that, and the taxpayers and the riders who fund the MTA - that has to change. I'd rather put millions of dollars back into the system where it belongs, and to stop the bad actors from taking advantage of the system and the laws as written, which is why I've included them on my budget, and they are part of our ongoing budget negotiations.

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