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LaPolitics: Critics say the Legislature has been approving “pro-industry” legislation regarding insurance while rejecting “pro-consumer” legislation. How do you respond to this complaint?
Senate Insurance Chair Kirk Talbot: I cannot file a bill that will lower insurance rates, but there are two ways that policyholders will see relief. One, is if you put a fortified roof on your home. The other is if an insurance company offers you a less expensive premium for the same coverage you have now. For the latter scenario to occur, we have to have competition in our market. The “pro-industry” bills are all designed to attract companies to Louisiana and create a competitive marketplace that favors policyholders, so we are no longer an outlier in the way we regulate this industry. Some of the “pro-consumer” bills that I do not support simply will keep insurance companies from coming to Louisiana and will keep us in the environment we are currently in—no availability, which results in no affordability.
To what extent can legislation move the needle on property insurance, given that important factors (such as geography and weather) are out of the Legislature’s control?
Geography and weather are definitely out of our control. But other states that are vulnerable to hurricanes have healthy, competitive insurance markets. Insurance companies are in the business of taking on risk in areas like ours in this country and abroad. We are not unique in this regard. We are unique in regard to the three-year rule. Abolishing that rule—which we are not doing, we are grandfathering in existing policies—I believe will move the needle.
Why is that?
Because the three-year rule does not allow insurance companies to manage risk. No one in the world has the three-year rule or anything similar to it. This is keeping companies from doing business in Louisiana. That hurts consumers. It also hamstrings Louisiana companies from being able to pay claims when we need them to; that is not “pro-consumer.”
—AUDIT REVIEWS WEED REVENUE: The LSU AgCenter has awarded 24 grants worth almost $1.7 million for marijuana-related research projects funded by its participation in the state’s medical marijuana program, the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s office reports. Eight are related to medical research about the use of therapeutic marijuana, nine to the production, cultivation, and storage of therapeutic marijuana and industrial hemp, and seven to their commercial use. Southern University’s AgCenter began conducting therapeutic use research projects in 2022 and is currently conducting five research projects at an estimated cost of $287,000. The LSU AgCenter has received almost $7.6 million in revenue through its relationship with contractor GB Sciences, and has projected total revenue of almost $13.9 million through 2028. Southern’s AgCenter contracted with Advanced Biomedicine in 2018 and has received $7 million through 2024. LSU staff members say they use program revenue for marijuana research specifically, though they are not required to do so, while Southern’s AgCenter has shared more than $2.7 million with other campuses for general expenses.
—RELATED LEGISLATION: While present law authorizes LSU and Southern, as the state’s licensed producers, to contract with an outside company for production, Senate Bill 228 by Senate Health and Welfare Chair Patrick McMath would direct the state to contract directly with the growers for the universities. When presenting his bill to House Health and Welfare, which advanced the measure without objection, McMath said the universities “don’t need to be in the pot business.”
—THEY SAID IT: “When you go to a restaurant, do you go over there and watch the cook make everything he serves you? No. You just walk into a restaurant, those restaurants that you think serve a great meal, and you order that great meal. You don’t want to know how, what the cook put in there, where he got the ingredients, how many people were involved in cooking it. All you care about is a good meal.” – Gov. Jeff Landry, in support of the effort to narrow the state’s public records laws, to Fox 8
