Gene Taylor Issues + Answers Lecture

Gene Taylor's issue + answers lecture at USM Gulf Park was a well attended event. Besides Congressman Taylor, Senatorial hopeful Ronnie Musgrove, State Senator David Baria and Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney were in attendance. While I organize my thoughts and before I give my personal impressions, I'll post the Sun Herald story along with the actions of our fellow blogger and friend Steve, aka Topbanana, who shouted down an insurance agent that heckled Congressman Taylor. The agent in question was forcibly removed from the premises by campus security while Steve received a round of applause from the crowd for shutting the guy up.

This news story contains a factual inaccuracy, HR 3121 does not repeal the McCarran Ferguson anti trust exemption. sop

Taylor asks residents to act

Wants support for multi-peril coverage

By MICHAEL A. BELL

Continuing his fierce pursuit of federal multi-peril insurance, U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor on Friday urged South Mississippians to flood senators with e-mails, letters and phone calls in support of a bill that would allow property owners to purchase both wind and flood insurance under one policy.

"We're all in this together," he told hundreds at the University of Southern Mississippi's Gulf Coast Campus.

Taylor's lecture, "The Insurance Crisis: A Case for Multi-Peril Coverage," was part of the Issues + Answers series sponsored by the school and the Sun Herald.

The U.S. House has approved multi-peril insurance. But the legislation faces heavy opposition in the Senate.

"We need our senators to champion this issue," said Taylor, who's trying to convince senators to support the addition of wind coverage to the National Flood Insurance Program.

Taylor argued insurance agents who probed the post-Katrina wreckage blamed the damage on wind. "I think the taxpayers got hosed on that," he said. "Insurance is killing us."

He said the private insurance industry made nearly $50 billion the year Katrina hit, then nearly $70 billion in 2006.

But people stuck in FEMA trailers - "42,000 little cubicles of love," he quipped - continue to grapple with recovery.

"A lot of people are hesitant to rebuild," he said. "And that's not a good thing for our country."

He argued his bill would provide peace of mind to residents that they won't have to prove wind or water caused property damage.

"You don't have that lingering feeling that 'maybe I ought to stay behind with a video camera and have some evidence'," he said.

He added his bill would no longer exempt the insurance industry from anti-trust laws.

Former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove and current Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney attended Taylor's presentation.

Taylor's 60-minute speech was followed by a standing ovation and a Q&A session.

One woman asked how much Taylor's policy would cost if it were approved by the Senate.

"The answer is, 'We don't know,'" Taylor said, adding the coverage would be optional. "But it's got to pay for itself."

Kenneth Trawick, 76, of Gulfport called the insurance industry a "runaway group of thieves" and thanked the congressman.

Don’t Mess with Texas – or Connie Moran

Big Insurance, meet Connie Moran – a Fulbright Scholar with a master’s degree in finance/economics and international commerce – the Mayor of Ocean Springs, Mississippi with all perils insurance on her mind.

Moran wants more than stories about businesses and residents having trouble rebuilding due to insurance costs, she want hard data. According to the Mississippi Press Register, she plans to provide that data to Congressman Gene Taylor.

A small town Mississippi mayor may not sound like a threat – unless you happen to have read about her accusing FEMA of “creating trailer trash” in the Seattle Times.

The mayor first gained national attention when she locked horns with FEMA, preferring the traditional and sustainable Katrina Cottages to the standard-issue mobile homes that “within 18 months create a trash-heap of trailers up for auction.”

She envisioned a neighborhood of "Katrina cottages" — tiny, yellow houses built in a Southern style, with sloped metal roofs and big front porches.

Ocean City has actually created “a planned village of 20 ‘Katrina cottages” about a mile from Ocean Springs’ downtown.”

You don’t mess with Texas or Connie Moran – if you don’t believe me, contact the Mississippi Department of Transportation and ask about that bridge they almost had to sell.

Gene Taylor to Speak on Insurance Reform

There has been an advertisement run in the print editions of the Sun Herald on Gene Taylor conducting an Issues + Answers lecture sponsored by the University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Park Campus on Friday, February 29, 2008 at the Advanced Education Center auditorium.

Thanks to one of our readers, I was emailed a link to the University press release and I am happy to pass it along to all so interested. Considering the other recipients listed in the address header I am honored Ida thought enough of this blog to pass me the good word.

I will be in attendance and hope we pack the house on the 29th.

sop