LAUREL, Md. — The Indiana Insurance Institute recently sponsored a bill that would have allowed state legislators to stop insurance coverage for cleaning up contaminated sites throughout Indiana, according to the Drycleaning & Laundry Institute (DLI), but the Midwest Drycleaning & Laundry Association (MWDLA) and other organizations in the state successfully waged a campaign that saw the proposed legislation fail to garner enough support to proceed.
The Indiana Petroleum Producers Association; Indiana Trial Lawyers Association; Indiana Manufacturers Association; the cities of Indianapolis, Winchester and Evansville; and the Indiana Association of Cities and Towns joined MWDLA to contact state legislators for a grassroots effort to stop legislation affecting insurance coverage of contaminated sites.
EnviroForensics, and numerous other environmental consultants and dry cleaners throughout Indiana, also helped contact Indiana representatives and senators.
Representatives from the different state associations met with the Senate Insurance Committee Feb. 27, and several testified in opposition to House Bill 1241. After two hours of testimony from both sides, the Committee voted 6-3 against the proposed bill.
DLI says this is a victory for dry cleaners small or large, as well as numerous other businesses that could have been affected by the legislation.
Rick Armstrong, MWDLA executive director, was pleased with the response from the MWDLA board and Indiana dry cleaners in contacting individuals and getting the numbers together to let the Indiana Legislature know how this would affect not only the dry cleaners but their communities.
“It was great to see all these organizations working together to see that the insurance they have paid for over the years will still be there to help clean-up of any contamination that might be on their sites,” Armstrong says.
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