Arizona Bill To Outlaw Crash Tax Awaits Governor’s Signature

NU Online News Service, April 8, 2:50 p.m. EDT

Arizona has become the 12^th state to approve legislation that either prohibits or restricts a so-called accident or crash tax.

The bill now heads to Gov. Jan Brewer for her signature, according to the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI).

"We applaud lawmakers for responding to the strong public opposition to this new trend of charging accident-response fees," says Kelly Campbell, vice president at PCI. "Ultimately these fees are a back-door tax that most consumers believe are unnecessary."

HB 2003, sponsored by Rep. John Kavanaugh (R-Fountain Hills), prohibits local government from charging crash taxes for emergency services response but it does allow some fees in rural areas outside of fire districts.

This week New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg nixed a proposal to impose a crash tax in the city. In California, crash tax ordinances were repealed in Sacramento, Vista and Roseville.

In 2010 the top writers of personal automobile insurance in Arizona were State Farm (17 percent market share), Zurich Insurance Group (12 percent), Progressive (9.6 percent), Allstate (9.1 percent) and Berkshire Hathaway Insurance Group (8.7 percent), according to Highline Data.

Highline Data is a part of Summit Business Media, which also own National Underwriter.