AUSTIN, TX – The director of The Heartland Institute’s Texas office today praised the state legislature’s final passage of a bill to reform the Texas Wind Insurance Association (TWIA).
The bill, which now heads to Gov. Rick Perry’s desk for a likely signature, ends TWIA subsidies for development in environmentally sensitive areas, creates increased disclosures of TWIA’s finances, and moves TWIA in the direction of transferring some of its liabilities from taxpayers to private reinsurers. The bill also contains language that will place new limits on tort claims against TWIA.
“The legislature took real steps to improve TWIA this session,” said Julie Drenner, director of Heartland’s Texas office. “New environmental protections, promotion of property mitigation, and increased financial transparency will benefit all Texans as well as improve the stability of the entity itself.
“We look forward to continuing to promote greater protection for taxpayers by ensuring TWIA has the ability to promptly pay claims without putting the state at further financial risk,” she continued.
Drenner criticized the conference committee’s decision to drop language that would have eliminated TWIA’s coverage of homes costing more than $1.5 million. “Both the House and the Senate agreed that TWIA shouldn’t subsidize the very wealthy,” she said. “But the final version of the bill, however, continues the state’s subsidies for the rich.”
Drenner can be reached for further information at 512-799-5706, email [email protected].
The Heartland Institute is a 27-year-old national nonprofit organization with offices in Chicago, Illinois; Washington, DC; Austin, Texas; Tallahassee, Florida; and Columbus, Ohio. Its mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. For more information, visit our Web site or call 312/377-4000.