Otter vetoes underinsured motorist bill
BOISE – Gov. Butch Otter vetoed another bill Friday – and it was another one sponsored by Senate Tax Chairman Brent Hill.
A day earlier, Otter had vetoed Hill’s legislation to ban smoking in Idaho bowling alleys, with a veto message that made sarcastic reference to legislative criticisms of Otter’s proposal for grocery tax relief. Hill, R-Rexburg, has been a leading critic of Otter’s approach on the grocery tax.
On Friday, Otter vetoed Senate Bill 1125, Hill’s legislation to require insurance companies to offer underinsured motorist coverage.
“It is not personal,” said Mark Warbis, the governor’s communications director. “The governor sat down with Senator Hill this morning before taking this action. … They left on the most amicable of terms.”
In his veto message, Otter said he thought the measure would make car insurance more expensive in Idaho.
“While no doubt well intended, SB 1125 would eliminate access to less-expensive forms of underinsured motorist coverage now available to Idaho consumers, forcing our citizens to obtain a more expensive form of the coverage,” the governor wrote. “… This bill is rife with unintended and potentially negative consequences.”
The bill passed the Senate 33-2 and the House 63-2. Hill led a passionate Senate debate for the bill, saying most Idahoans don’t know they aren’t fully covered for accidents when they’re hit by an underinsured, rather than uninsured, driver.
“All too often, people think they have full and comprehensive coverage when they don’t,” Hill said. He said Idaho is one of just a few states that doesn’t require insurance companies to offer such coverage. Idaho’s minimum liability coverage is $25,000, and medical costs from accidents commonly exceed that amount, he said.
Sens. Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, and John Goedde, R-Coeur d’Alene, both argued just as strenuously against the bill, saying it could boost the cost of policies, potentially leading to more uninsured motorists. Both sell insurance for a living.
Otter issued his veto as lawmakers gave up early Friday and went home, resigned to returning next week to continue a legislative session that they’d hoped to end before now. Still unresolved are the grocery tax issue, a highway bonding plan, emergency communications upgrades and primary election reforms.