{"id":21524,"date":"2024-03-11T16:51:59","date_gmt":"2024-03-11T16:51:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/?p=764342"},"modified":"2024-03-11T16:51:59","modified_gmt":"2024-03-11T16:51:59","slug":"mississippi-wind-mit-bill-would-tax-insurers-help-fund-retrofits-tornado-rooms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2024\/03\/11\/mississippi-wind-mit-bill-would-tax-insurers-help-fund-retrofits-tornado-rooms\/","title":{"rendered":"Mississippi Wind-Mit Bill Would Tax Insurers, Help Fund Retrofits, Tornado Rooms"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul class=\"nav nav-tabs tabs tabs-entry\">\n<li class=\"active\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/news\/southeast\/2024\/03\/11\/764342.htm\">Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/news\/southeast\/2024\/03\/11\/764342.htm?comments\" rel=\"nofollow\">0 Comments<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"article-content clearfix\">\n<p>Mississippi could soon join the growing list of states with grant-funded wind fortification programs for homeowners, thanks to a bill that\u2019s moving through the state Legislature.<\/p>\n<p>The state House of Representatives last week approved <a href=\"https:\/\/billstatus.ls.state.ms.us\/documents\/2024\/pdf\/HB\/0800-0899\/HB0888CS.pdf\">House Bill 888<\/a>, by chief sponsor Rep. Jerry Turner, R-Baldwyn. It would help fund not only home-hardening efforts, but also tornado safe rooms, lightning protection, generators and even some earthquake resistance measures.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bzn bzn-sized bzn-intext\">\n<ins data-revive-zoneid=\"79\" data-revive-topics=\"carriers,catastrophe,natural-disasters,windstorm\" data-revive-companies data-revive-block=\"1\" data-revive-id=\"36eb7c2bd3daa932a43cc2a8ffbed3a9\"><\/ins> <\/div>\n<p>And it\u2019s not just for insured property owners: Self-insured homeowners could see significant support from the program.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_764348\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-764348\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-764348\" src=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/jerry-turner-pic-225x300.jpg\" alt width=\"130\" height=\"173\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/jerry-turner-pic-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/jerry-turner-pic-435x580.jpg 435w, https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/jerry-turner-pic.jpg 675w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 130px) 100vw, 130px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-764348\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Turner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>If approved by the Senate and signed into law, the Wind Damage Mitigation Program and trust fund would be administered by the state Department of Insurance, although the department would be able to contract with a vendor to manage it. All property and casualty insurers doing business in the state will have to contribute to the fund at a rate set by the insurance commissioner, with a minimum annual charge of $100, the bill notes.<\/p>\n<p>Total insurer contributions for the program shall not exceed $1.5 million a year. Significantly, the program would start with $5 million taken from the Mississippi Surplus Lines Association. Officials with MSLA, a non-profit organization of surplus agents that works with the DOI, could not be reached for comment Monday morning.<\/p>\n<p>Turner\u2019s bill would establish tax-free catastrophe savings accounts for homeowners. It\u2019s unclear how large the program\u2019s grants would be, but the bill notes that contributions to the savings accounts would be limited: For residents with insurance deductibles of $1,000 or less, the contribution could be no more than $2,000. For those with higher deductibles, contributions could be as much as $15,000 or twice the deductible, whichever is less.<\/p>\n<p>And for self-insured homeowners, the contributions could be as high as $350,000 but no more than the value of the house, the bill reads. Commercial property would also be eligible for some funding.<\/p>\n<p>Other states\u2019 programs, including Florida\u2019s My Safe Florida Home, provide matching grants up to $10,000.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/news\/southeast\/2024\/03\/11\/764257.htm\"><strong>Florida Lawmakers Chalk Another $200 Million for Home Hardening Program<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"tagtag\"> <span class=\"tagtag\">Topics<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/location\/florida\/\" class=\"btn btn-sm btn-primary tagtag\">Florida<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/catastrophe\/\" class=\"btn btn-sm btn-primary tagtag\">Catastrophe<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/carriers\/\" class=\"btn btn-sm btn-primary tagtag\">Carriers<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/natural-disasters\/\" class=\"btn btn-sm btn-primary tagtag\">Natural Disasters<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/windstorm\/\" class=\"btn btn-sm btn-primary tagtag\">Windstorm<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/location\/mississippi\/\" class=\"btn btn-sm btn-primary tagtag\">Mississippi<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll\" data-post=\"764342\">\n<div class=\"article-poll-vote\">\n<p>Was this article valuable?<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll-feedback voted-no\">\n<form class=\"feedback-form\">\n<p>Thank you! 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Please tell us what you liked about it.<\/p>\n<p> <textarea placeholder=\"Enter your feedback...\"><\/textarea> <button type=\"submit\" class=\"submit\" disabled>Submit<\/button> <button class=\"cancel\">No Thanks<\/button> <\/form>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll-more-articles\">\n<p class=\"thank-you-text\">Here are more articles you may enjoy.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"subscribe-banner subscribe-banner-in-content-2\">\n<div class=\"content\">\n<h4>Interested in <em>Carriers<\/em>?<\/h4>\n<p>Get automatic alerts for this topic.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Article 0 Comments Mississippi could soon join the growing list of states with grant-funded wind fortification programs for homeowners, thanks to a bill that\u2019s moving through the state Legislature. The state House of Representatives&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[1,45],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/mississippi-wind-mit-bill-would-tax-insurers-help-fund-retrofits-tornado-rooms.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21524"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}