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The Chronicle welcomes you online! Please feel free to respond to these editorials or letters to the editor by sending your
letters to the editor.
We condense letters; most, as published, won't exceed 300 words. A letter must include the writer's name and city, which will be published, and an address and telephone number for verification, which will not be published. Writers may be limited to one letter every 30 days. Open letters, letters to third parties and poetry are not considered. Letters from people living outside the Chronicle's circulation area usually are not considered.
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For Ga. insurance commissioner: John Oxendine
Web posted October 30, 1998
JOHN OXENDINE has pulled this off in Georgia, which is why we recommend his re-election.
Republican Oxendine won the commissioner's post four years ago after he defeated an incumbent Democrat whose arbitrary auto rate freeze angered both consumers and insurers, with many of the latter fleeing the state.
Oxendine lifted the freeze, allowing more than 100 rate hikes for vehicle and homeowners' insurance. They were necessary, he says, because the long freeze kept rates unnaturally low.
His market approach is having the desired effect, encouraging more insurance companies to come to the state to compete. Recently State Farm, Georgia's largest auto insurer, agreed to cut rates by $21 million.
The commissioner -- who employs 300 people on a $17 million annual budget -- is running as the man who put customer service back in the commission office. It's the only state agency that answers its phones until 7 p.m.
If elected to a second term, Oxendine vows to abolish, or at least cut in half, the 4.75 percent tax on all insurance premiums in order to make Georgia more competitive. He's already working on a legislative plan in this regard with our own Rep. Robin Williams, R-Augusta.
We commend the incumbent to voters because, unlike his untested Atlanta Democrat foe who's a legislator and not a manager, Oxendine has the experience to make even more consumer-friendly changes over the next four years.
Augusta Chronicle Editorial Staff
A good state insurance commissioner finds ways to serve the interests of consumers without making insurance companies so upset that they leave the state.
