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Billionaire Starts Ballot Drive To Cut Michigan Car Insurance Premiums

Steve Carmody/Michigan Radio

 

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Billionaire businessman Dan Gilbert, the founder of Quicken Loans, is starting a ballot drive as a "failsafe" in case Michigan's Republican-led Legislature and Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer don't enact legislation to cut the country's highest auto insurance premiums.

Quicken Loans vice president of government affairs Jared Fleisher said Monday that a ballot committee, Citizens for Lower Auto Insurance Rates, will be created this week.

If Gilbert's group gathers enough voter signatures, the Legislature could approve the initiative and sidestep a veto. The House and Senate have passed differing bills that Whitmer has criticized, though negotiations are ongoing.

Fleisher says it'd be best if legislators and Whitmer enact a law to reduce rates by letting people opt out of mandatory unlimited medical benefits. But he says signature-gathering must begin soon as a backup.

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