For the fourth time in three years, Louisiana’s largest insurer of homes is asking for a rate increase that, if approved, could raise homeowners', condominium and renters’ insurance premiums to an average of 26.7 percent higher than they were in 2008.
Associated Press business writer Alan Sayre reports that State Farm is asking the state Department of Insurance for an 8.5 percent average increase on 301,000 policyholders statewide. The rate hike would mean an additional $32.7 million a year in premium payments.
The request from State Farm comes only three months after state Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon denied the company’s request for an average 14.3 percent increase:
Insurance companies are not granted rate increases based upon prior losses, such as damage from four major hurricanes that have hit Louisiana in recent years. Instead, the rates are supposed to be set on projections of future losses using complicated mathematical models.
State Farm did not provide a breakdown of how policyholders would be affected in various parts of the state, citing a law keeping that information confidential while the insurance department is considering the rate increase. Typically, a homeowner’s rate increase package includes increases for some portions of the state and decreases in others.
The company received a 9.9 percent increase last year after requesting 19.1 percent. In 2009, State Farm received an 8.3 percent increase after requesting 13.7 percent.
Read more here.
MAY 17 Here's a column from James Gill, this time in the Advocate. Gill, who has jumped ship from the Picayune, writes about the absurdity of dueling polls in this post. The numbers are so wildly different, it is obvious that both sides are "cooking the books," he writes. In particular, he looks at Sen. Mary Landrieu, and how her recent actions in DC have been received by those polled. Gill's acerbic, amusing prose is a welcome addition to a paper so conservative as to be occasionally lacking in personality.
MAY 17 Blogger Tom Aswell continues delivering bombshells about the state education department and Gov. Jindal's education "reform" efforts. In this post, he reports that students in the Shreveport area have been signed up for a charter school without their knowledge or consent. Most interesting to Aswell is how this Texas-based charter (with ties to GOP types) got the personal student information it has, if the students didn't give it.
MAY 17 This post by JR Ball in the Baton Rouge Business Report is an interesting tongue-in-cheek look at recent Baton Rouge economic development efforts. Among the items he examines is the idea that gaining a Costco makes BR a "world-class city." (Really? All you need is a different brand of Sam's? MK!) This effort, and other recent ones, are all built on the taxpayer's back, with tax zones, tax incentives and tax rebates, Ball writes.
MAY 17 Blogger CB Forgotston is critical of the legislature's reliance on a revenue-estimating committee's decision to include projected tax amnesty income in this year's forecast. That's a problem, CB posts, because the deadline for these people to pay their taxes is June 30, 2014. So when do you think these people who haven't paid taxes in years are going to pay their taxes? Surely not before June 30, and that means the money won't be there for this year's budget, he argues.
MAY 17 Here's an interesting blog out of California by a Hollywood writer, attorney and academic named Brian Alan Lane. He blogs about higher ed, and was a whistle-blower in a scandal over false credentials. In this post, he takes aim at LSU's new top dog, King Alexander. It's convoluted and a little confusing, but it sure makes Alexander a lot more interesting than he was yesterday.
MAY 17 Blogger Robert Mann writes about the LSU Board's refusal to allow Dr. Fred Cerise to testify before the legislature about Gov. Jindal's plan to close down all the state's charity hospitals and dump the poor on the private system. It's hard to imagine anyone more qualified than Cerise to testify about that, so why would anyone try to prevent him doing so? Mann thinks it is because the powers that be aren't interested in hearing any truth about the plan.
MAY 17 This post on the Louisiana Sinkhole Bugle, a blog that notes developments in the Bayou Corne and Jefferson Island salt domes, talks about a proposed expansion of the salt dome storage under Lake Peigneur in Iberia Parish. Residents are working against it for several reasons, including two biggies: the sinkhole disaster in Bayou Corne and the continuing, unexplained bubbling on the surface of the Lake.
MAY 17 NOLA police arrested more people Thursday accused of either being involved in the Mother's Day shooting or hiding the suspect afterward, this Gambit story reports. The NOLA police chief said he suspects the whole thing was gang-related and throws out a challenge to the gangs: he's got informants now, he says, and he knows a lot more than the gangs want him to know. The people who live in the neighborhoods terrorized by gangs are ready to talk, he says.
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Each time I renew and receive my latest policy, there are additional riders that effectively reduce the coverage I have, which also, in my opinion, equate to a still larger price increase in premiums that are not addressed in this article.
Please, Commissioner Donelon, do not grant State Farm another increase. People on fixed incomes can not afford any more!! Where does it stop?