By Hannah Grover
New Mexico Senate Majority Floor Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, entered his office last week to find a notice of cancellation from an insurance carrier for a property that he has a financial interest in.
Wirth read that letter on the Senate floor on Saturday. The letter informed Wirth that the property is in an area with high fire danger and that is why the policy won’t be renewed.
“This is a property in the City of Santa Fe, off of Old Santa Fe trail,” Wirth said.
Wirth is sponsoring Senate Bill 81, which would raise the coverage limits of the New Mexico Fair Access to Insurance Requirement (FAIR) Plan. The FAIR Plan, which was created in 1969, provides insurance for homeowners and businesses who are unable to get their properties insured.
The Senate approved SB 81 on a 34-1 vote on Saturday and now heads to the House of Representatives. Sen. Jay Block, R-Rio Rancho, cast the sole dissenting vote.
Under SB 81, the coverage amounts will increase from $300,000 to $750,000 for residential properties and $1 million to $2 million for commercial properties.
Insurance companies licensed in New Mexico are required to participate in the FAIR Plan.
“In effect, what they’re doing is sharing the risk,” Wirth said.
He said the insurance companies sit down as part of a pool to cover damages to a property.
As climate change and prolonged drought increase the likelihood of devastating wildfires, more and more New Mexicans are receiving notices like the one Wirth read on the floor.
Sen. Gabriel Ramos, R-Silver City, is an insurance agent and he joined Wirth in sponsoring the legislation.
“Right before I came up to the session, I had customers call in from other companies saying that they can’t get insurance, which is really, really detrimental to them because, first of all, they need insurance for their current loans and, second of all, the fire season’s starting up so we need to make sure that they’re covered,” Ramos said.
He said one day during the session he received calls from three different people asking for help getting insurance.
“The bottom line is we’ve got to do what we can for our New Mexico residents to get them some kind of a policy that’s going to save them from — for some people — losing everything they’ve ever worked for,” Ramos said.
Perhaps the author will tell us why Sen. Block voted no.