Alabama Senate President Pro Tem Hinton Mitchem urged the governor to consider calling the Legislature into special session to address insurance cancellations and skyrocketing costs along the Alabama coast.
“The Alabama Gulf coast is too important to the economic and social well-being of our entire state to allow the unavailability or excessive cost of property insurance to depress the recovery of this vital area,” said Mitchem, who owns property in Orange Beach.
In a letter to the governor, Mitchem, D-Union Grove, said the special session could be called within the regular session that begins March 6, and it would focus the Legislature’s attention on the problem without costing the state any additional money.
Gov. Riley’s press secretary, Tara Hutchison, said the governor had not yet read Mitchem’s letter.
Mitchem’s suggestion is patterned after a special session the Florida Legislature held last month, where it passed laws designed to curtail rapid increases in insurance premiums due to hurricanes in 2004 and 2005.
Alabama’s coast was battered by Hurricane Ivan in 2004 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
On Feb. 2, Alabama’s largest home insurance, State Farm, announced it would not renew coverage for about 2,600 policyholders mainly in Alabama’s beach resorts.
In efforts to limit exposure on Alabama’s coast, the next two largest insurers, Alfa Insurance and Allstate, also have either dropped coastal policies or announced their intentions to do so.
Topics Leadership Alabama Politics
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