Deadline to Protest Insurance Increase is Oct. 1

With just one week left to lodge protests against a windstorm insurance rate increase, Coastal Bend elected officials and chambers of commerce held a rally Sept. 24 to continue their fight against the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association. TWIA sent a 10 percent rate increase, which was approved this summer in a 5-4 vote, to Texas Department of Insurance Commissioner Kent Sullivan for approval. Sullivan has until Oct. 15 to approve it, while the deadline to submit comments is Oct. 1.
“If they don’t hear from the 14 counties affected by this increase, they are going to say we don’t care,” said State Rep. Todd Hunter (R-Corpus Christi), who hosted the protest rally at the Congressman Solomon P. Ortiz International Center.
On top of the hike, a cost-of-living increase of 4 percent was added to TWIA rates, something about which the Association has not been very forthcoming, Hunter said.
“It’s government at its worse,” he told the crowd. “They don’t tell you hidden in there is a four percent inflation increase. If it passes, it’s a fourteen percent-plus increase.”
Hunter and other speakers, including Corpus Christi Mayor Joe McComb, State Rep. J.M. Lozano (R-Kingsville), Ingleside Mayor Ronnie Parker, and United Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce President Cleo Rodriguez, condemned the hike, promised aggressive action on their part to stop it, and implored home and business owners footing the bill to actively protest the hike.
“Here’s what you can do,” said Rodriguez as he urged those at the rally to mail in pre-printed postcards distributed on tables throughout the venue. “These are already written out, already addressed, just sign and mail them. Do it today, so they can know there are people concerned about issues in the Coastal Bend.”
Protestors can also sign an online petition, Rodriguez said, which can be found on the Corpus Christi chamber’s website. The goal is to have 15,000 signatures collected before a meeting with the Texas Department of Insurance planned for Wednesday, Sept. 26. Only 3,000 more were needed as the rally commenced.
“Send a strong message that Coastal Bend United is in opposition of this increase,” Rodriguez said.
Coastal Bend United is a new group formed by elected officials and leaders of six chambers of commerce representing the Coastal Bend to organize a concerted effort against the TWIA hikes.
“I’m reminded of the story of David and Goliath,” said Corpus Christi Mayor Joe McComb of the famous Old Testament tale in the Bible. “We’re here to make sure your slingshot is full and that we go after the giant and knock out this ten percent increase.”
Reasons to protest the hike are plentiful. Ingleside Mayor Ronnie Parker pointed out that the Coastal Bend has paid ever-increasing TWIA rates for 47 years without suffering from a major storm or needing to make claims. Now, after Hurricane Harvey, a Category 4 storm that hit the area last year, the Coastal Bend is continuing to wait for checks from the insurance Association of last resort while being asked to pay more for coverage.
“You don’t kick us when we’re down,” Parker said. “We don’t need a knock-out punch. We have claims that still haven’t been settled from last year’s storm. The fourteen counties affected up and down the coast won’t put up with it. We have to have other options.”
Other options could come about through legislation, which the elected state representatives and senators are working on now. Besides restricting the amount TWIA can raise rates in the future, Hunter is also concerned about another problem he recently discovered and plans to address with legislation: arbitration.
“This is what you are paying for, ladies and gentlemen,” he said at the rally. “If you are denied a claim, you have to go to arbitration in New York City and hire three New York arbitrators who will be operating under New York law. When did Texas become New City? To me that’s wrong.”
Hunter called the arbitration clause a sham.
“Texas arbitration should be handled under Texas law with Texas arbitrators,” he said. “It’s time the Coastal Bend region stands up to be heard, to be seen, to stop discrimination, and this is discrimination.”
Which brings up another major reason to protest the rate increase: Other areas of the state have not been hit with such increases after their own disasters. In fact, two major hailstorms in the Dallas area and the Bastrop fires from a few years ago affected every insurance rate payer in the state of Texas, and not just those people in Dallas and Bastrop, Lozano pointed out. He called the practice redlining, when an area is carved out of a bigger group and treated differently.
“The courts say redlining is unconstitutional,” Lozano said. “It stifles the ability to own a home. This system is broken, and we will fix it.”
Hunter continued the theme, calling it “economic disincentive.”
“It’s a very serious thing,” he said. “We have got to have them hear us. I plan to be very aggressive on the legislative front. I don’t think (TWIA) should be able to go up ten percent. I don’t think they should be able to go up any at all.”
To sign the petition against the rate increase, visit the United Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce website at unitedcorpuschristichamber.com.