It's been a few years, but the idea of mandatory car insurance once again is buzzing about the bonnets of a few lawmakers.

State Sen. John Lehman (D-Racine) is circulating a bill in Madison that would require all drivers to carry insurance providing coverage of up to $50,000 for personal injury and $10,000 for property damage.

Uninsured drivers are not exactly the scourges of the road. Lehman cites a study by the Insurance Research Council that found one in seven drivers is without insurance. About 15 percent of drivers in Wisconsin don't have insurance, according to industry reps.

Wisconsin is one of a handful of states that doesn't mandate auto insurance, unless you have certain traffic tickets and need to keep your license. That's also the reason it has one of the lowest insurance prices in the country, according to insurance expert Greg Felzer, of American Family.

Felzer said the Badger State, with an average annual rate of $613.81, ranks 47th nationally in auto insurance rates. There is a noticeable drop-off in rates between mandatory and non-mandatory states.

The insurance industry is not likely to drive headlong in support of this bill. If insurance companies have to insure all drivers, including the idiots, good drivers have to pay more because the risk would substantially increase, Felzer says. Lehman says his bill would make roads safer.

"Bad drivers are still going to be bad drivers," Felzer counters.

His advice? Buy enough insurance coverage to protect yourself and don't worry about the other guy.

In the Sewers: It wasn't with resounding support, but the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District Board picked the French firm Veolia Water to operate the two sewage plants and Milorganite facility run by MMSD.

In a 7-4 vote, Veolia beat out a bid from the unions representing MMSD workers and United Water, which has run the district for the past 10 years.

MSD staff claim the private operator will save sewer users $35 million over the decade compared to the union bid.

Not all commissioners bought that reality, however.

Board Chairman Pedro Colon said he was naturally "skeptical" of private contractors and felt that Veolia could only have come in with such a low bid by not figuring profit into the price tag. Colon said he worried that Veolia will try to turn a profit in the middle of the contract through various changes in the deal.

Board commissioners may have left some obvious questions on the cutting room floor. For instance, would Veolia commit to hiring the current workforce?

Veolia President John Wood told the committee it was the "general intent" to hire the existing staff.

St. Francis Mayor Al Richards asked one of the more outlandish questions of the day when he queried Wood if all the staff at Veolia were U.S. citizens. Wood admitted that one of the execs present at the hearing was Canadian.

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4 comments about this article. Post a comment / write a review.

Recent Talkbacks ...

Posted by danno on Dec. 12, 2007 at 10:56 a.m. (report)

How about if the person has an expired license she can't claim damages? This is a racket in Milwaukee where the person hits another car and the person who staged the supposed accident goes to the personal injury lawyer to sue. But this person shouldn't even be on the road because she has no valid driver's license.

Posted by WestsideTide on Dec. 10, 2007 at 12:19 p.m. (report)

Fed up- it's not about punishment, it's about requiring everyone, even the deadbeats, to take responsibility for their actions. These people are breaking the law since they don't have the financial resources to cover their accidents. The current law is outdated, ineffective, and needs to be changed.

Posted by Fed Up on Dec. 7, 2007 at 1:46 p.m. (report)

Why would you mandate 4 million drivers in Wisconsin pay higher insurance premiums when you add these deadbeats to the risk pool? Your example of the 1 in 7 uninsured motorist should hit the 1 in 10 pedestrian without health insureance seems like an extreme example to punish every driver in the state with higher premiums. it's a whole lot cheaper to carry uninsured motorist coverage.

Posted by WestsideTide on Dec. 7, 2007 at 11:43 a.m. (report)

One thing the opponents of mandatory insurance forget is that not all victims of auto accidents are in autos. What about pedestrians or bike riders? If you are hit by an auto without liability insurance and you are on foot, you better hope you have good health insurance. Those without health insurance are on their own or can wait until the unemployed or minimum wage person who hit them scrapes up $100,000 to pay the medical bills. This is wrong! It is also ethically wrong to not have liability insurance and the state should definitely get with the 21st century and start requiring liability insurance. If you are responsible enough to drive, you should be responsible enough to buy insurance. If you can't afford insurance, you can't afford to drive. Take the bus.