LEGISLATORS ASSAIL INSURANCE CHIEF

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, November 3, 1991

Publication: The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A07

State Insurance Commissioner Samuel F. Fortunato has come under fire by Assembly Democrats for saying that he opposes lifting surcharges on drivers who, except for minor infractions, have clean records.

Fortunato told The Record’s editorial board Wednesday that it would be unwise and wasteful to change the state-run Market Transition Facility, or MTF, so motorists with minor infractions would be spared the surcharges.

A group of Assembly Democrats, including Speaker Joseph V. Doria Jr. of Bayonne, said during a news conference Friday at Borough Hall that they disagree with Fortunato.

“We in the Legislature create the laws, and we don’t feel the commissioner should arbitrarily make decisions that contravene the intent of legislations,” Doria said. “Commissioners of departments are not above the Legislature. The surcharge system that currently exists in the MTF, the bureaucrats have created it. They created it without the approval of the Legislature.”

Assemblyman Louis J. Gill of Passaic, who is co-sponsoring a bill to prohibit the MTF from imposing surcharges greater than those in the private insurance market, said he would push to make the bill law in the Assembly’s next session.

Assemblyman William J. Pascrell Jr. of Paterson said Fortunato had better rethink his position or face losing his job.

“If he is not prepared to act before the next Assembly gets in session, I would be prepared to ask for his resignation, because this is an act of defiance of the Legislature,” Pascrell said.

Jim Berzok, an Insurance Department spokesman, said on Friday that Fortunato was merely expressing a personal opinion on the surcharge system during the editorial board meeting. Berzok said the commissioner will abide by whatever is decreed by the Legislature or Governor Florio.

“He is certainly willing to entertain any alternative plan,” Berzok said.

ID: 17359926 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)