The Civil Justice Subcommittee voted to send House Bill 4, as amended, to the full Judiciary Committee, approving increases to the minimum liability-insurance limits that local governmental entities must carry.

Proponents said the change updates long-standing statutory caps tied to the Governmental Tort Liability Act (GTLA) to reflect inflation and rising costs for catastrophic claims. Representative Bozzo, sponsor of the bill, said the $300,000 per-person and $700,000 per-incident limits set in February 2007 are no longer adequate and proposed stepping the per-person limit to $400,000 this year and to $500,000 later; aggregate limits would rise to $850,000 now and to $1,000,000 thereafter, and property damage coverage would increase to $200,000.

Supporters pointed to state data on school-bus collisions between February 2015 and February 2024 showing 24 fatalities, 124 serious injuries and 1,029 possible injuries, and to individual cases where medical bills exceeded the current caps. Representative Bozzo said one bus rollover required appointment of a special master to divide damages under the existing $700,000 cap.

Opponents warned the increases could raise premiums for local governments and pass costs to taxpayers. Representative Todd said small local governments and insurance pools had expressed opposition because higher limits can increase premiums. Bozzo and other supporters responded that many local insurance pools already purchase higher catastrophic limits for exposures that are uncapped under federal civil-rights statutes, and that some pools (for example Public Entity Partners, mentioned during debate) already carry larger limits.

The recorded committee vote was 5 ayes, 2 nays, 1 present-not-voting; the chair stated the ayes prevail and the bill was sent to full Judiciary as amended.

Why it matters: The GTLA limits define the maximum recoverable damages for many state-law negligence claims against local governments. Raising statutory caps changes the potential exposure for counties, cities, school districts and other local entities and may affect insurance procurement and budgets.

What happened next: The bill advances to full Judiciary for further consideration. The committee record shows detailed debate about the scale of potential awards for catastrophic injuries and the insurance-market mechanisms that local governments use to cover large claims.