A Colorado bill to impose a 1% charge on homeowners insurance policies died in a committee in state Legislature this week.
The Senate Finance Committee voted 6-2 to kill House Bill 1302, which was pushed by Gov. Jared Polis and top Democrats in the legislature to rein in home insurance premiums in Colorado.
The bill would have created the Strengthen Colorado Homes Enterprise, a state-owned business that imposes and collects a fee on policyholders of homeowner’s insurance policies issued by insurance companies (insurers) and the fair access to insurance requirements (FAIR) plan association in the admitted market covering property located in or risks in Colorado.
With the fee revenue, the strengthen homes enterprise board would administer a grant program “to strengthen homes against the risk of future damage claims caused by high winds, wildfire, hail, and other extreme weather events (extreme weather events) by allowing a homeowner to use grant money to upgrade their roof system with certain resilient roof materials,” the wording in the bill states.
The bill was intended to reduce insurers’ loss risk by having the state purchase reinsurance coverage for companies that offer policies in wildfire-prone areas through a Wildfire Catastrophe Reinsurance enterprise, a state-owned business implementing and administering the wildfire catastrophe reinsurance program.
Members of the committed opposing the bill said they were worried about imposing a new fee on residents, who were already complaining about the cost of living, the Colorado Sun reported.
“We’re now opting to do nothing about a runaway freight train,” state Sen. Judy Amabile, a Boulder Democrat and lead sponsor of the bill, told the Senate Finance Committee before it rejected the measure.