Gee, wasn't that fun?
The election is over. No more TV adds accusing a candidate of being a corrupt, adulterous scumbag who doesn't floss regularly and who does lines of coke every morning as soon as he's done raising your taxes. Watching TV just won't be the same; it will be...enjoyable.
Now that New York has a new governor and a lot of the same legislators, what happens to the independent insurance agents' agenda? Sure the state's looking at another gigantic budget deficit, a problem that David Paterson will cheerfully hand off to Andrew Cuomo on January 1. While our issues may be secondary in terms of the attention lawmakers give them, they are no less important. No fault insurance remains a gold mine for organized crime. The 2007 workers' compensation reforms are still not fully implemented. We still don't know what workers' comp coverage obligations, if any, an out-of-state employer has for employees who visit the state on business. The homeowners market in eastern Long Island remains tough on its best days. The scaffolding law is still driving up liability insurance rates. It's very possible (maybe even likely) that the IIABNY/CIBGNY legal action against the New York Insurance Department will be unresolved when the new administration takes office. And those are just the problems I can think of off the top of my head.
Campaigning for elective office is ugly, but governing can be even uglier. The saying goes that to govern is to choose. When politicians choose, they tend to make at least some of the citizenry rather angry. You may have noticed that during the just-concluded election season. New York State legislators and the governor are almost guaranteed to make just about everyone angry about something; a $9 billion budget deficit makes that inevitable. So yes, governing for the next two years will be ugly. In the midst of the ugliness, I hope lawmakers will give some attention to some very serious insurance issues. Agent participation at IIABNY's Capital Event in February will be essential to raising awareness of these problems. Mark your calendars now.
And if you're really suffering from the day-after-Election-Day blues, just remember that November 6, 2012 is only 734 days away. Don't shoot the messenger.
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