AUSTIN, TX – The Director of The Heartland Institute’s Texas insurance project today harshly criticized the Texas Wind Insurance Association’s announcement that it would continue to sell insurance at below market rates to very wealthy Texans.
According to data released by TWIA and reproduced below, Texas taxpayers will remain implicitly on the hook for paying insurance claims on houses that cost up to $1.7 million dollars. Because TWIA charges below market rates and has grown very quickly, Texas may eventually have to raise taxes or cut services to pay off TWIA claims.
These policy limits mean that TWIA insures homes worth nearly seven times the average listing price ($265,000, as of November 17 according to Trulia.com) for homes in Texas.
“TWIA’s continued subsidy of millionaires is particularly sinister since average taxpayers have no idea they will have to pick up the tab when the next hurricane wipes out their beachfront mansions along the coast,” said Julie Drenner, Director of Heartland’s Texas Office.
Source: TWIA, “TWIA Maximum Limits of Liability to Remain Unchanged for 2011,” November 19, 2010
Julie Drenner can be reached at (512)799-5706 or [email protected].
