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May 12 to 18
NJ Insurance Regulation
In the last several months rising electricity bills have become a major political issue in the 2025 election process. Hearings have been held, numerous bills have been introduced in the Legislature, Gov. Phil Murphy has issued new executive orders and has even called for a federal investigation. The threat giving rise to much of this activity is a 17% to 20% projected increase in the supply rate of electricity beginning June 1. This all on top of a summer last year in which ratepayers complained that utility bills soared.
Somehow rising electricity rates have become a major focus of attention while equally sharp increases in auto and home insurance rates have been the subject of much less attention.
Home and auto insurance rates have been rising steadily, with significant increases in 2024 and 2025. While just about everyone has joined in vilifying the Board of Public Utilities for failure to protect state consumers from energy rate inflation, no one seems to even know about the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance, whose mission “to regulate the banking, insurance and real estate industries in a professional and timely manner that protects and educates consumers and promotes the growth, financial stability and efficiency of those industries.”
Everyone has heard of Christine Guhl-Sadovy, president of the Board of Public Utilities. Almost no one can name Justin Zimmerman, the commissioner of banking and insurance, appointed to that post by Murphy in 2023. Yet average Garden State increases in auto insurance rates in 2025 stand at 17.2%, almost exactly the amount of the imminent electricity price increase coming June 1. The difference? The auto insurance rates are already here. While we are at it, have you looked at your home owner insurance rates lately?
Studies have shown that litigation, fraud and inflated claims are driving up what consumers have to pay to legally drive. Yet no one will find a batch of reform legislation flooding the state Senate and Assembly on this issue. The public is mostly unaware that a state agency exists that is charged with protecting their interests. Maybe a Legislature full of lawyers is not the best place to look for relief from litigation-driven rate increases.
One factoid to consider is that the Insurance Information Institute’s analysis for 2023 claims a 58% increase in staged accidents in New Jersey. Advocates argue that Trenton lawmakers could strengthen fraud prevention and address litigation abuses, but action on this front is not motivated by the same urgency that drives the fight against utility rate growth.
Household Debt
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has released its household debt and credit report for the first quarter of 2025. Total household debt rose $167 billion, to reach $18.2 trillion in the first quarter. The good news was that credit card balances fell by $29 billion, to a new level of $1.18 trillion. Auto loans also declined, by $13 billion to $1.64 trillion. This was only the second time since 2011 that auto loan balances have fallen from a previous quarter.
The growth was in student loan balances, which increased by $16 billion to reach $1.63 trillion. There was also a significant rise in the movement of balances from current to delinquent. The quarter marked the resumption of reporting student loan activity on credit reports following a five-year pause.
Mortgage debt rose $199 billion, reaching $12.8 trillion, with home equity lines of credit balances up $6 billion to $402 billion.
Aggregate delinquency rates rose from the previous quarter. The report says 4.3% of outstanding debt is in some stage of delinquency.
A separate Federal Reserve report notes that New Jersey ranks among the top 10 states in terms of its household debt to income ratio. The goal is to have lower, not higher, DTI ratios. Cape May County has the second-highest household DTI ratio among the state’s 21 counties. Part of the phenomenon in Cape May County was driven by recent upsurges in home values, which have increased levels of mortgage debt.
Tax Per Capita
Staying with the theme of rising costs foisted on New Jerseyans, we have been commenting of late on the many different ways in which governmental units in the Garden State find ways to tax residents. The Tax Foundation recently reported on state and local tax collections per capita by state for 2025.
The report shows all 50 states in rank order of their combined state and local tax collections per capita for 2025. The result should not surprise you. New Jersey ranks fifth among the 50 states. The four states ahead of us are the usual suspects. In order they are New York, California, Connecticut and Hawaii.
According to the report, which draws on Census Bureau data, the average per capita state and local tax burden in the country was $7,109, while New Jersey came in at $9,366, a full 32% higher. Keep in mind that these numbers are being reported per capita and not per household.
A look at the same annual study back to 2017 shows that New Jersey has never been out of the top 10, dipping below the top five only at the height of the pandemic in 2021.
What is even more surprising than the obvious appetite for taxation by New Jersey lawmakers is the inability of our elected officials to put the state on a stronger financial footing. A fact we have mentioned before: If the normal expenses of the state were pushed onto our rainy day fund, according to a Pew study, that fund would be exhausted in just two days.
Week in Review
*A Lower Township police officer, Cpl. Jonathan Schenk, has been nominated for the annual Valor Awards, recognizing police officers who have displayed heroism.
*North Wildwood’s towing contractor was removing equipment from the boardwalk when the truck broke through the boards. A crane had to be used to lift the truck out of the hole it created.
*Following the departure of Stone Harbor clerk Emily Dillon, who left the borough for another position in April, the council on May 6 appointed Jeanne Parkinson as the new clerk.
*Atlantic City Electric customers have received a recent communication concerning changes in their electricity bill.
*A Wildwood Crest man has been arrested and charged with shooting and killing a woman in a park in Millville late last year, according to the Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office.
*The Stone Harbor Borough Council has adopted an ordinance that adds a $125 fee to the quarterly base sewer rate for the remaining three quarters of 2025.
*The lawsuit asking a judge to prevent Wildwood Crest from leaving the Five Mile Dune project remains on hold, pending whether the affected towns can reach agreement about it.
*The Wildwood Crest Board of Commissioners has honored Louis J. Belasco III on his appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
*A newcomer to politics has apparently ousted a two-term City Council incumbent in the first contested municipal election in Sea Isle City in more than a decade.
*The Upper Township Committee has found a new business administrator, pulling from the ranks of the U.S. Army at Fort Dix.
*In response to Commissioner Will Morey’s concerns that the county commissioners’ recently adopted public comment policy was too harsh, county Counsel Jeff Lindsay reviewed the matter and determined there was no need to change the policy.
*Upper Township is going to celebrate the Fourth of July in June.
*The Wildwood Crest commissioners have established a civility policy for citizens interacting with borough employees.
*A Cape May resident has been sentenced to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted murder and aggravated assault charges in a domestic violence case involving his then-pregnant fiancee, according to the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office.
*Gov. Phil Murphy is using his power to issue executive orders in a direct attempt to alleviate the impact of electricity rate hikes due to be imposed June 1.
*Drexel University professor and Wildwood Crest lifeguard Robert Morier is hoping to make waves with his new study on how skills learned on the lifeguard stand show what it takes to succeed in business leadership.
*ICONA Resorts CEO Eustace Mita is expected to open the doors of the iconic Wonderland Pier in Ocean City this summer, but only for arcade games and pizza.
*A 200-person Eucharistic procession led by a famous Benedictine monk took to Stone Harbor’s streets to kick off a three-day conference, Catholics at the Shore, just one week after the election of the first American pope.
*Legislation that would limit rent hikes might be the answer for some Upper Township mobile home park residents who are now facing a steep rent increase come June 1, members of the Osprey Cove Mobile Home Park community were told.
Spout Off of the Week
It’s that time of year and I’m kindly asking that when you visit your favorite shore town, you remember that it’s a resort town and you are not the only one here. Please be courteous and obey the speed limits. Turtle season is beginning and they need to cross safely to lay their eggs. People in crosswalks are considered pedestrians and they have the right of way. Welcome back, Shoobies. Please pack your manners.
Sea Isle City
