As another Atlantic hurricane season begins, homeowners across Louisiana are struggling to afford fast-rising insurance rates. The problem has left lawmakers scrambling to find solutions. One approach has been to provide financial assistance to help homeowners fortify their roofs.
The idea behind the Fortify Homes Program is that when houses are better prepared to weather storms, insurance companies make fewer payouts, and rates remain lower for everyone as a result. The program, still just a few years old, has been a modest success.
State Sen. Royce Duplesis has been hoping to build on that success. Capitol Access reporter Brooke Thorington spoke with him about a bill he proposed—which has now been defeated two years in a row—that would have required insurance companies to give a minimum 20% discount to homeowners who fortify their roofs.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Brooke Thorington: Thank you so much for joining us today.
Sen. Royce Duplessis: Thank you for having me.
Thorington: Tell us a little bit about this bill. You presented it last year, and then again this year. Tell us what happened.
Duplessis: So I want to start by talking about why I brought the bill. The Fortified Roof Program has been identified by experts as the most effective way and the quickest way that we can reduce insurance premiums for homeowners.
So we have to beef up the program, we have to stand up the program, and we have to incentivize people to take advantage of the program. But even for those people who don't get the grants, some people may even be willing to come out of pocket if they know that they can get a meaningful discount. Right now, the law only requires an actuarial justified discount.
Now, actuarial justification is a fancy term that means basically nothing. It means that the insurance company gets to decide what level of discount works for them. And what we've seen is that people are not getting the level of discounts that they should be getting. And that's problematic because if your neighbor gets a roof—whether they take advantage of the program or whether they pay out of pocket—and they don't get a meaningful discount, they're gonna tell the neighbor. And then that's gonna be a disincentive for other people to take advantage of getting a fortified roof.
So we looked at the leading program in the country, which is Alabama. Alabama has been doing this program, I want to say since 2009, [Editor’s note: The Strengthen Alabama Homes Act was passed in 2011] Andby the way, it was created by the insurance industry because it saves them money, because it mitigates the risks and it lowers how much they have to pay out anytime there's a storm.
But Alabama has a 20% benchmark. They did their testing, they did their models, and it's working. It's been a successful program, so I figured that 20% would be a good starting point. I pushed the bill last year. We couldn't get it out of committee. And the arguments that were largely given were that they didn't want to mandate or dictate to the industry what they should be getting, out of fear of driving out insurers.
But there's really no evidence to suggest that that would've been the result. So I was committed to bringing the bill back this year, and I was even more so excited or encouraged by the fact that Gov. Landry, last year after the bill failed, said that it was a bill that should have passed. So I was anticipating having some vocal support from the governor's office on that bill.
Unfortunately, that did not happen this year for reasons which I don't quite understand. But we were unsuccessful getting it through this time around as well, and I even changed the bill. Instead of making it a mandate, it was just going to be a benchmark, where we set the benchmark at 20%. But if the insurance company could not give it, they would just have to explain the reasons why.
So here we are, again, two years in a row, we've tried to mandate the discount. I think it's a crisis that people need relief from, and we need to ensure that people who take advantage and invest in a fortified roof will actually see a meaningful discount because we know that there are instances where people are not getting those discounts.
Thorington: Now, I know construction is probably not your forte, but can you briefly explain what a fortified roof is?
Duplessis: A fortified roof is actually pretty simple. It just uses a certain type of standard to limit water and wind from being able to remove the shingles on the roof. So it's a certain type of nail and roofing material that's used to protect the roof and to make it stronger and to withstand hurricane-force winds.
Thorington: We've had the fortified roof grant program that's available for coastal parishes, and every time that comes up, they're overwhelmed with people applying for this. So people know about the program and they're applying for it. But when I asked Gov. Landry about the University of Alabama study that showed evidence that this is a cost savings for insurers and policyholders, and if there's a possibility that he would increase funding for the Fortified Roof program this year, his response to me was that when he visits the coastal parishes they've never heard of a fortified roof. Any comments on that?
Duplessis: I don't know why that would be his response, but I do know that it is an incredibly popular program that people do want to take advantage of. There are efforts to put more funding into the program.
We're doing legislation as we speak to have a dedicated funding source for the program, because the more roofs that we can fortify, the more we can lower insurance rates across the state. We're focused on the coastal parishes at the moment, but if we reach the 25% threshold, we should see saturation levels where we can then expect meaningful discounts across the board.
Thorington: Anything else you wanna tell us about fortified roofs?
Duplessis: I think we have to be willing to go beyond the fear of mandates. We are in a crisis and we have to trust the data and we have to be willing to do things that are bold in order to give people the relief that they need in order to live in the state of Louisiana.
We can't stop the storms from coming as quickly as we can strengthen rooftops, and all we're asking for is a modest 20% discount. But even if we don't go with the 20%, we have to supercharge this program in order to give people the relief that they need now, not next year, but right now.
Thorington: Sen. Duplessis, thank you so much for your time today.
Duplessis: Thank you so much for having me.
Though Sen. Duplessis’s bill did not advance, other legislation concerning fortified roofs is still making its way through the Legislature. The bills include:
- HB 145: Increases the maximum amount of the construction code retrofitting tax deduction and expands the deduction to cover costs associated with "fortified home" standards compliance.
- SB 28: Establishes an income tax credit for taxpayers who pay to have a fortified roof installed on their property.
- SB 52: Provides an individual income tax exemption for grants from the Louisiana Fortify Homes Program.
You can find a list of insurance carriers that give discounts for fortified roofs in Louisiana here.