CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association released figures Tuesday estimating it needs to increase residential policyholders' rates by 20 percent to cover possible damages this hurricane season, and 22 percent for businesses.
TWIA currently is the lowest-cost hail and wind insurance on the market. Residents have options when it comes to being protected against storms, but it will likely cost them more.
"If you have a 20 percent increase, how can a fixed-income person keep their mortgage?" said Texas Dist. 32 Rep. Todd Hunter. "You have to pay for property. You have to pay for flood. And you have to pay for wind storm. And you know what? Sometimes wind storm is higher than the property tax bill," he said.
TWIA released the following statement that reads:
Analysis reflects the shortfall in TWIA rates based on the estimated costs of paying claims, paying commissions to the insurance agents who sell TWIA policies, purchasing reinsurance, expenses for issuing and maintaining policies, and other operating costs. These are similar to costs for any insurance company.
However, Hunter doesn't agree.
"To me this is the same ol', same ol', here we go again," he said. "Let's increase the bill on the taxpayer."
Insurance Council of Texas Executive Director Albert Betts said there are still alternatives to TWIA.
"TWIA only writes wind and hail," he said. "So the private market writes -- I think our last figures show somewhere between 55 and 60 percent of the wind and hail along the Texas coast for those 14 counties."
Since 2018, on average, TWIA brought in more than three times the money paid out in claims during non-hurricane years.
After Hurricane Harvey in 2017, TWIA paid out three-and-a-half times more than they took in that year.
Hunter said he'll continue to campaign against any rate hike right up to the next TWIA board meeting on Aug 8. TWIA released the following statement that reads:
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