Who is a member?
Our members are the local governments of Massachusetts and their elected and appointed leadership.
Federal and state officials are continuing to work to mitigate the impacts of the federal Biggert-Waters Act of 2012, which dramatically increased flood insurance rates using new flood plain maps.
The federal Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act, which would delay flood insurance premium increases by up to four years, passed the Senate on Jan. 30, but it has yet to be brought to a vote in the House, where it has 181 co-sponsors, including all members of the Massachusetts delegation.
The bill, co-sponsored by Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, would also:
• Allow homeowners to pass flood insurance policies on to new purchasers of their homes at the same below-market rate
• Roll back rates on new homeowners who have recently seen sharp premium increases
• Require the Federal Emergency Management Agency to create a plan to make premiums affordable and re-evaluate the accuracy of its newly drawn flood plain maps
A provision in the 2014 federal budget act already delays scheduled premium increases for primary residences for one year.
On Feb. 10, the Massachusetts congressional delegation sent a letter to FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate calling on his agency to amend flood maps for Massachusetts using a physics-based modeling approach more appropriate for the region. The delegation also requested that FEMA suspend the new flood maps until a decision is made to amend them.
FEMA relied upon modeling for the Pacific Ocean during the re-mapping process for Massachusetts.
The town of Rockport successfully appealed the FEMA flood map, and FEMA agreed that the town’s alternative engineering analysis data was scientifically correct.
“The Town of Rockport’s successful appeal is precedent-setting for the rest of the state,” said Congressman Keating in a statement. “It provides concrete proof that FEMA used the incorrect flood map models for our region and their approval of the appeal is acknowledgement that there is a better one.
“Too much is at stake for our homeowners and communities to not remedy this wrong,” Keating continued. “The current FEMA maps are overly conservative, placing people in flood zones inappropriately and costing them thousands of dollars. The only responsible thing to do is to suspend the implementation of the state’s maps until they are fixed.”
On Feb. 27, the Massachusetts Legislature’s Joint Committee on Financial Services held a hearing on a bill, sponsored by House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Attorney General Martha Coakley, that would prohibit any creditor from requiring a homeowner to purchase flood insurance on the home in an amount that exceeds the value of the mortgage. The bill would also prohibit a creditor from requiring flood insurance on the contents of the home and from requiring the purchase of a policy with a deductible below $5,000.
The MMA offered its strong support of the bill.
“Flood insurance affordability is an issue of community and neighborhood stability,” the MMA testified. “The bill … offers an excellent and practical opportunity to mitigate the very real financial threat to homeowners posed by increasing flood insurance premiums.”