Didn’t Carl Perry learn last time that this is a solution in search of a problem? Because nobody is out there begging that they want more of their paychecks to go to paying insurance. If you like your homeowners insurance going up, prepare for higher car insurance rates.
House Bill 1059 has been introduced to increase the amounts required in a motor vehicle liability policy. Increased policy limits means more expensive insurance for everyone, because car insurance is mandatory in South Dakota. It’s like death and taxes. And Sjaarda, Perry and Representative Scott Moore want you to pay more. They want to DOUBLE the amount of insurance that people are required to carry in South Dakota, despite there not being a hue and cry for it.
These legislators in their heavy handed-ness want to take our minimum limits from 25/50/25 to 50/100/50 – fifty thousand dollars because of bodily injury to or death of one person in any one accident and, subject to the limit for one person, fifty one hundred thousand dollars because of bodily injury to or death of two or more persons in any one accident, and twenty‑five fifty thousand dollars because of injury to or destruction of property of others in any one accident.
As I skewered this dumb effort back in 2023 with facts, so shall I do so again. And I direct you to very informative information from the Insurance Institute of America, which shows that – much like our teacher salaries – South Dakota has among the lowest amount of uninsured people in America (42nd in the nation):
We are actually more insured comparatively than we were in 2023. We were at #41 of the lowest uninsured before. Now 3 years later we’re at #42. And Government didn’t have anything to do with it.
Only 9.4% of South Dakotans are uninsured. Yet, despite South Dakotans doing it voluntarily, here these guys are with more government demanding we be MORE insured. How would that put us in comparison to the rest of the country?
The proposal is to tie us at #2 highest limits in the country with Maine and Alaska. And higher limits mean higher insurance rates for us all.
I pointed out in 2023 that only things that this measure would do would be to raise rates for all consumers, make it tougher to get insurance, and actually raise the number of uninsured motorists in the state. Just because a person waits a couple years to bring around an idea again does not make it any better.
Noting again as an old insurance agent once told me, if we could legislate responsibility, then we would have no drunk drivers, unintended pregnancies, or need for a Division of Child Support.
But legislators seem to think they can do it with auto insurance, so here we are.
To be fair, Carl probably didn’t even read the bill
We’ll see if he runs from it like he did the hunting/fishing guide licensing bill.
District 3 I am begging you: PLEASE REPLACE THIS IMBECILE!
We’re trying!
If i total out a semi, I’m covered up to $500,000 because that’s the amount of coverage i choose to carry.
If I’m a semi driver and someone totals out my rig with a replacement value of $450,000, and they have coverage up to $100,000, my under-isured motorist rider kicks in.
Why the hell should I have to carry insurance for an underinsured moron who drives the roads in south dakota?
We were discussing this at coffee today about how the three of our local legislators Perry, Schaefbauer, the guy who lives in Sioux Falls but is somehow still our legislator. We all agreed they don’t do a damn thing but cost us money, drive business and our best talent away from Brown County and the state! Our kids call them freaks!
Then all of us wondered how that Manwhite or Whiteman kid got elected in the first district! He does nothing for our neighbors except posts about being white. His website with what he posted is very disturbing! Is he an Afrikaner? That weirdo does not belong in the legislature!
Maybe Ismay can draft a bill (or have someone else do it because he really is lost) to send uninsured drivers to prison too… Along with voting against the prison. Lord help us.
The Montana DPHHS did a survey in Billings Montana that showed 17 of 96 food applicants said DUIs, fines, or car insurance were a reason for seeking food stamps. That’s around 50,000 over the last 20 years. Go to Facebook and type into the search engine “Food Stamps (SNAP) Discussion” for the first page of this study. Also included is a food stamp chart showing a jump in South Dakota food stamp numbers at the start of its mandatory auto insurance law.