Editorial: It's not just south Alabama that's affected by hurricanes

Editorial: It's not just south Alabama that's affected by hurricanes
By Press-Register Editorial Board
April 08, 2010, 9:00AM

THE LATE-session massacre of six coastal insurance bills left Mobile and Baldwin residents to wonder whether the powerbrokers in the Legislature understand the importance of the coastal counties to the state’s economy.

Lawmakers like Sen. Lowell Barron, a Democrat from Fyffe, seem to only grudgingly accept that Mobile and Baldwin counties are part of the state of Alabama.

During a debate two years ago on bills designed to bolster the struggling homeowners’ insurance market in southwest Alabama, Sen. Barron advised Sen. Ben Brooks, R-Mobile, that he didn’t have to support his insurance proposals because Fyffe was a long way — about 400 miles — from Mobile.

It’s hard to top that expression of parochialism, but Sen. Barron may have done it last week when he explained why he was, once again, opposing Sen. Brooks’ insurance reform bills.

"He’s just an abrasive personality," Sen. Barron said, referring to his colleague from Mobile. "He doesn’t understand the legislative process enough to get others to help him solve his problems."

Sen. Barron obviously personalizes the legislative process to the extent that he cannot recognize a problem that affects the entire state, including Fyffe.

To be fair, Sen. Barron also invoked the hazards of government intrusion in private business as a reason for opposing the insurance bills.

But we suspect that this was just a high-minded cover for the personal and parochial considerations that drive his opposition to virtually all efforts to help property owners in Mobile and Baldwin.

Since 2004, the state’s major insurers have dropped wind coverage for more than 51,000 policyholders in Mobile and Baldwin.

Thousands of homeowners have been forced to buy high-priced wind coverage from the wind pool, the state’s insurer of last resort.

Thousands more have watched their insurance premiums soar by as much as 100 percent in just a few years.

This is a problem for all of Alabama. The coastal counties anchor the state’s $9 billion tourism industry.

State Revenue Commissioner Tim Russell says Mobile and Baldwin generate $1.8 billion in state revenue.

Indeed, almost 20 percent of the state’s take from individual income taxes comes from Mobile and Baldwin residents.

The insurance crisis already is hurting the coastal economy, and the problem will likely get worse unless the Legislature takes action to provide some relief.

If the coastal economy, hammered by soaring insurance rates, stops generating its usual share of state revenue, those who’ve thwarted insurance reform will be hard-pressed to defend their narrow view of state priorities.