Greg Bruhn: Don’t subsidize for coastal regions

I recently received a notice from my insurance company informing me that my homeowner’s insurance policy was due to increase by nearly 20 percent. The correspondence included a term “beach plan,” which my agent explained contributed, in part, to my rate increase. The beach plan allows insurance companies to collect funds from inland residents to supplement the expense of insuring coastal property owners.

The April 30 news article “Sea-level forecast brings relief” featured concerns from coastal residents not wanting state officials to mandate measures related to sea-level rise. The representatives from the N.C. Coastal Commission are entitled to their opinions minimizing the impact of sea-level rise and to rely on their own panel of experts to provide statistics that are less alarming.

If coastal counties chose to act independently of state oversight, they need to be prepared to bear insurance costs, without using the beach plan.

The risk of having local governments determine development policies has the potential of pitting one county or region of the state against another. Policies could be formulated on short-term economic gain at the expense of all of us.

Hurricanes and nor’easters are no respecter of political boundaries, and they will occur with or without rising seas.

This story was originally published May 5, 2015 at 6:09 PM with the headline "Greg Bruhn: Don’t subsidize for coastal regions."