State Farm may hike rates on Coast if Mike Chaney allows
Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney says he should decide soon whether State Farm can boost homeowners’ rates in three coastal counties.
Chaney said Monday in a meeting with The Clarion-Ledger editorial board he should make a final ruling next month on State Farm’s proposed rate increase of an average of 45 percent for homeowners in Harrison, Hancock and Jackson counties.
The three counties took the brunt of Hurricane Katrina’s battering storm surge and howling winds in August 2005, and Chaney says home insurance and affordable housing remain serious challenges there more than four years later.
He temporarily denied State Farm’s request in September, saying he needed more information from the company on why it believes the increase is justified.
Clarion-Ledger
10/7/9
Magnolia Tribune
