PHOENIX — Arizonans who take their cars out of state for some period of time won’t have to fear losing insurance coverage.
Exercising her last veto of the session, Gov. Jan Brewer rejected a measure sought by the insurance industry to allow it to cancel a policy for “any motor vehicle principally garaged outside the state.” The governor said the legislation could remove “important consumer protections” for Arizona policyholders.
Brewer did sign legislation removing a requirement that students seeking scholarships to attend private or parochial schools first have attended a public school. Those scholarships are funded by dollar-for-dollar state income tax credits to donors, essentially making money given to the program a reduction in state revenues. The new exemption applies to those who qualify under a section of the law aimed at students with certain disabilities or those in foster care.
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Brewer’s Monday actions finalize everything sent to her before lawmakers wrapped up this year’s legislative session last month. It brings her veto tally to 25 — one short of last year.
Arizona has one of the strictest laws in the nation against insurers canceling policies or refusing to renew them.
Rep. David Livingston, R-Peoria, said that even extends to situations where people move out of state but hang on to their Arizona policies. He said these motorists should be forced to buy new coverage in their new home state and live with the laws there.
But Rep. Debbie McCune Davis, D-Phoenix, said the industry-crafted legislation was broader than that.
“There are no time frames and there are no definitions in the law,” she said during the vote on the measure.
“There are people who take short-term job assignments outside the boundaries of this state, particularly in hard economic times,” McCune Davis said. She also said that students often take a family-owned car off to college.
Brewer, in her veto message, said the law would have given insurers the unilateral power to decide if a vehicle is “principally garaged outside of Arizona.”
She said the law could also remove important consumer protections, such as proper notice of the cancellation and the right to protest a cancellation.
