Louisiana lawmakers will convene next week after Governor John Bel Edwards called a special session for the legislature to address the shortage of property insurers during business in Louisiana.
Edwards issued a proclamation calling the year’s first extraordinary session on Sunday afternoon. The session will begin at noon on Monday, January 30 and adjourn no later than 6 p.m. on the following Sunday. According to the proclamation, the legislature will be limited to discussing one topic: appropriating funds to the Insure Louisiana Incentive Fund.
“Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon has stressed that funding the Insure Louisiana Incentive Fund cannot wait until the regular session in April,” Governor Edwards said in a statement released shortly after he signed his proclamation. “I am grateful for the cooperation of the Senate President and House Speaker and the legislature in calling this special session focused on this Fund. While Commissioner Donelon says we must do this now, this is just a first step in addressing Louisiana’s ongoing insurance issues after the devastating hurricane seasons of 2020 and 2021, a crisis worsened by hurricanes and wildfires in other states in 2022. We will continue to work on this issue during the regular session beginning in April.”
Both Senate President Page Cortez (R-Lafayette) and House Speaker Clay Schexnayder (R-Gonzales) believe that this special session will be the first step in a long process to ease the state’s property insurance crisis.
“Commissioner Donelon has stated that time is of the essence with regard to the legislature’s funding of the incentive program and thus the need to go into a special session,” Cortez said in a statement. “While we understand this will not completely solve the crisis we recognize the urgency.”
"While a special session to fund the Louisiana Incentive Fund is not going to solve the issue of availability and affordability of property insurance for our citizens, it is a short term band-aid that can be a first step toward a more long term solution,” Schexnayder said in a statement. “The House will continue to work for a more permanent fix to this situation so that our businesses and property owners don't have to go through this continuous cycle. We have to attract more companies to write policies in our state. We expect that Commissioner Donelon will make the incentive program work as a temporary fix, but we need to do more to solve the problem.”
Related
