Republican lawmakers are trying to get Wisconsin’s auto insurance premiums back to where they were before Democrats raised minimum coverage levels. Senate Republican Mike Ellis of Neenah is among several GOP lawmakers trying to round up support for repealing the higher coverage levels which took effect November 1st. The bill was first announced last week, but it did not get a lot of fanfare. Ellis says the new limits for liability, uninsured, and underinsured motorists are meant to give lawyers bigger settlements and legal fees in lawsuits. He called it a “sloppy kiss” from Democrats that working families cannot afford. But Madison Democrat Joe Parisi, a member of the Assembly’s Insurance Committee, denies the motivation. He blames higher insurance premiums on the recession – including losses by insurance companies in their stock investments. Democratic lawmakers and Governor Jim Doyle approved the higher coverage levels in the new state budget this past spring. The prospect of higher premiums got a lot of publicity, but motorists were still thrown for a loop when they recently got notices from their insurers that their policies would cost more – hundreds more in a number of cases.
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