Bayou Gauche and Des Allemands residents tossing their house keys on a table in resignation at a February 2013 FEMA meeting over receiving flood insurance rate hikes of up to $35,000 a year left a lasting impression on St. Charles Parish officials.
Residents made a powerful statement, saying if this was allowed to happen the government might as well take their house because their house would become unaffordable and unsellable. The wakeup call sent officials rushing to head off a disastrous economic turn for residents and parish alike.
One of them was Buddy Boe, then the parish’s chief administrative officer, who helped organize the effort that headed off the the proposed rate hikes. He was joined by parish presidents in Louisiana and supported by the St. Charles Parish Council in helping to convince President Obama to sign the measure rather than veto it.
It was a victory that delayed the increases, but only temporarily.
Flood insurance rates are reauthorized every five years and the next bill setting the rates comes up in 2017.
Boe was recently appointed to represent the state of Louisiana on the National Association of Counties NFIP Task Force, which he said is aimed at taking a proactive move toward ensuring the next bill keeps rates affordable. A LaPlace resident, he also has been elected to the District 7 seat with the St. John the Baptist Parish Council.
On Jan. 21, Boe will join other U.S. officials in Washington, D.C., to help start drafting the reauthorization bill and trying to avoid repeating the 2012 version of the bill – the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act – that set skyrocketing flood insurance rates in motion and stunned parish residents.
“We organized and alerted the country to this because no one was talking about this,” Boe said of forming a national coalition with more than 250 organizations and 33 states.
“Then we played election year politics. Either side, Democrats or Republicans wouldn’t let the other fix it. So, in January 2014, we passed a law of Congress – the only way to fix it. It passed with 75 percent of the vote in House and Senate, and President Obama signed the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act that grandfathered, restored and capped the increases, and bought us some time until we could fix the law for good.”
This is what Boe has been appointed to address and time is ticking on the fast approaching 2017 bill that will set insurance rates for the next five years.
“In Louisiana, we know we have a risk and it’s part of daily life, but not so elsewhere in the country,” he said. “They have risk but don’t buy flood insurance and they need to be a part of this program. The wider the risk pool the lower the cost of insurance for everyone in the pool, and that’s our goal on the local end, and on the national end.”
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