Will Steve Poizner Enter the Immigration Fray?
Capitol Weekly speculates that California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner might follow the lead of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger -- who laid the groundwork for his future gubernatorial run with a ballot initiative -- by coming up with a proposition of his own. The concept is still in the formative stages, but the idea is to try to take uninsured drivers off the road. The Weekly reports:
The proposal stems in part from Poizner's desire to cut down on the numbers of uninsured motorists--perhaps 3.2 million drivers, by one estimate--by expanding the state-backed, low-income automobile-insurance program statewide. The program, which began in 2000, currently serves 42 counties.One possible provision is to crack down on uninsured motorists by removing the license plates from the offending drivers' vehicles. Another version includes attaching the "Denver boot" to the cars, a device commonly used against scofflaws, which locks one of the vehicle's wheels and prevents the car from being moved. Other possibilities, including consumer protections in the homeowners' insurance market, also have been aired.
The Weekly article, amazingly, makes no mention of one of the main causes of uninsured drivers in California -- illegal immigration. That's because under current law, illegal immigrants can't get driver's licenses, and if you can't get a license, you can't get insurance.
Seems to me that addressing this issue without addressing the immigration component is to tip-toe around the elephant in the room. Which is understandable, from a political standpoint -- Poizner surely doesn't want to take on that controversy.
But if his proposition has the effect of either a) helping illegal immigrants to get insurance or b) punishing illegal immigrants who are uninsured, he will surely offend someone. This is a controversy, it seems he's destined to stumble into, like it or not.