Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner was joined by State Farm’s California Senior Vice President Rand Harbert to announce a $219 million rate reduction for State Farm Mutual Auto Insurance Company policyholders in California on May 14. This represents an average decrease of 8 percent. State Farm policyholders throughout California will be keeping $219 million more of their hard-earned money, thanks to this rate cut,” said Commissioner Poizner.  “Since I took office 2007, rates have fallen by nearly $2 billion for California consumers, and it is encouraging that in these tough economic times, the largest auto insurer in the state is passing company savings along to policyholders.”

There has been a great deal of discussion recently about database manipulation. This manipulation can take many forms and exists at the expense of the collision repair industry and the rights of California’s consumers.

There’s an old Arabian proverb that’s become popular with our politicians: “If the camel gets his nose into the tent, his body will soon follow.” The proverb suggests that if the nose enters, step-by-step the whole camel will eventually be inside the tent and the occupant will be shivering on the outside.

Michael Spears, of Collision Authority in Nevada, reports that AB297 passed the Assembly on April 21 and now heads to the Nevada Senate. The vote was 31 yea, 10 Nay, 1 Not Voting. Spears credits an active collision repairer campaign to educate and solicit support from the Assembly.