The New York state Senate just passed S.6028, 56-7, sponsored by Sen. Neil D. Breslin, D-44. This bill would make photo inspections of private passenger automobiles optional. Currently, many consumers are required to get a photo inspection of their vehicle within 14 days of purchase. This bill would allow insurance companies to choose if or when to have the photo inspection performed. The Assembly same-as bill—A.6877 sponsored by Assemblyman Kenneth Zebrowski Jr., D-96—passed the chamber in April.
“PIANY thanks Sen. Breslin and Assemblyman Zebrowski for sponsoring these bills and working to get them passed in their respective houses this legislative session,” said PIANY President Tim Dean, CIC, CRM. “PIANY has made this legislation a top priority for a number of years, and we thank all our members who contacted their state legislators on behalf of these bills, and we now urge the governor to sign the bill into law to help remove this outdated practice that can be burdensome on consumers.”
For more information about what PIANY did on this bill earlier this session and in 2021, read Updates on PIANY’s advocacy to make photo inspections optional.
What PIANY did to get this bill passed
This session, PIA conducted five PIAdvocacy campaigns during which PIANY members contacted their state legislators to ask them to co-sponsor this important legislation and put pressure on legislative leadership to pass the bill. This included four statewide campaigns—two focused solely on the state Senate—and a final push over the last week targeting the bill’s 19 senate co-sponsors urging them to encourage the sponsor to allow the bill to be discharged from the Senate Insurance Committee to the Rules Committee.
In total, PIANY members sent over 500 messages to more than 100 members of the Legislature. Over 65% of state senators and over 40% of the state Assembly were contacted over the last five months by insurance agents in their district. PIANY members also met with 26 state legislators as part of the District Office Visit program.
During the session (January-June), PIANY encouraged more legislators to sponsor the bill and the original 11 co-sponsors grew to 19. We always saw an uptick in co-sponsors after doing an advocacy campaign and/or District Office Visits during which we asked legislators to become co-sponsors, thus demonstrating the impact of these campaigns and meetings.
Get involved
If you want to get involved with PIANY’s legislative and advocacy work, there are many ways to engage with the association:
- participate in PIANY’s District Office Visit Program;
- become a member of Agents Advocacy Coalition; and
- watch your PIA Northeast publications and PIA Northeast’s social-media channels for important New York updates, and share them with your followers.
Katherine “Kat” Slye-Hernandez, Ph.D.
Katherine “Kat” Slye-Hernandez received her Ph.D. in political science from the State University of Albany, Albany, N.Y., in May 2020. She also has her Master of Arts from SUNY Albany and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and History from Elmira College, Elmira, N.Y.
