The federal government was losing its shirt subsidizing the flood insurance of homeowners, so it passed a law in 2012 requiring the homeowners to pay more. But now that premiums are going up, homeowners are grumbling and lawmakers from both political parties are making moves to restore the federal subsidies.
Apparently easing the concerns of angry coastal constituents is one thing Republicans and Democrats in Washington can agree on. The Globe reports that the Massachusetts congressional delegation, which supported the original provision requiring homeowners to pay more, is joining forces with lawmakers from the West Coast, the Gulf of Mexico, and elsewhere on the East Coast to restore the subsidies to an estimated 5.5 million policyholders nationwide, including 60,000 in the Bay State.
The Globe quotes Doris Crary of Scituate as saying the flood insurance rate hikes are unfair because she has filed only one insurance claim due to flooding over the last 30 years. “We in New England are getting attacked in a really bad way,” Crary told the Globe. “What they’ve done is extremely unfair.”
Yet it’s hard to see what’s unfair. The government got into the flood insurance business originally because private insurers thought it was too risky, a situation that is only likely to worsen as climate change increases. The intent of the 2012 legislation was to make coastal homeowners pay a greater share of their flood insurance costs and reduce the amount that taxpayers nationwide are paying. It was the beginning of a long overdue conversation about the responsibility of the federal government to people who want to live in coastal areas prone to flooding.
Many of the people who live along the coast tend to be wealthy. Crary, according to the Globe, owns six properties, four of which she says were hit last year with $600 to $900 increases in annual insurance premiums. Scituate assessing records indicate she owns three properties in that community, including a bed and breakfast on Oceanside Drive assessed at
$797,000 and two homes on Glades Road along the water assessed at $551,000 and $188,000.
It will be interesting to see if lawmakers in Washington are more interested in cutting the size of the federal deficit or helping coastal constituents facing steep increases in their flood insurance premiums.
–BRUCE MOHL
BEACON HILL
Gov. Deval Patrick prepares to deliver his final State of the State address tonight, the Telegram & Gazette reports. The Globe says he plans on unveiling an ambitious agenda for his final year, while the paper also highlights the long list of woes his administration has faced.
Rep. Leah Cole, the 25-year-old Republican from Peabody who replaced Joyce Spiliotis in a special election, says she is planning another run, the Salem News reports.
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
Lawrence Mayor Daniel Rivera defeated the former mayor, William Lantigua, fired Lantigua’s current wife from her secretarial job with the city, and is now aiming to replace Lantigua’s former wife on the Licensing Board, the Eagle-Tribune reports. Rivera also tells the Merrimack Valley Chamber of Commerce that businesses will no longer have to worry about “someone shaking you down” now that he is mayor.
NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON
Less than three weeks before the Olympics, Rep. Bill Keating is traveling to Russia to assess security threats, the Standard-Times reports.
If you want to understand North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, argues a North Korea expert, forget about Dennis Rodman and watch the BBC classic “I, Claudius” instead.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
Broadway Electrical, one of the state’s leading solar power contractors, shuts down, but it’s unclear why and whether the shutdown is temporary or permanent, CommonWealth reports.
Construction honcho John Fish appears to be poised to become the next chairman of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, writes the Globe‘s Steven Syre.
EDUCATION
Barnstable schools confront the the problem of children with mental health issues that hinder their ability to cope in group settings.
The state now funds just 13 percent of Boston’s public school budget, the Globe reports, down from 31 percent 15 years ago, a steep slide that is partly attributable to the growth of charter schools in the city.
HEALTH CARE
Regulators have been slow to adopt mandated new regulations on the cost of long-term care insurance, the Globe reports.
As a result of the concussion controversy, women may hold the key to whether the NFL continues to exist.
TRANSPORTATION
The Marshfield Municipal Airport is scheduled to close for three months starting in March as the facility is expanded, the Patriot Ledger reports.
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
The owners of Brayton Point, the coal-fired Somerset power plant, must decide by next week whether they want to keep the plan running beyond its scheduled 2017 shut-down.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
The trial is set to begin for a Worcester woman who killed a pregnant woman and cut out her baby and took it as her own, the Telegram & Gazette reports.
Amid uncertainty caused by the “Raise the Age” law, a 17-year-old girl arrested for assaulting a younger girl in downtown Lowell is let go, the Sun reports.